What Paganism taught me about Christianity and Judaism
I was raised Evangelical Christian and questioned most of it from a young age. Going to college and learning about the United Church of Christ and Quakerism helped me to heal and stop making generalizations, but questions still lingered.
I respected Jesus as a teacher, but still couldn’t believe he was the “Messiah”. I had a light bulb moment when the Hebrew Bible scholar I met said “only Christians call it the ‘Old’ Testament”. This is what made me form my own analyses of Christianity based on what I’d seen in modern pagan communities like Kemetism.
In those groups, I see a lot of discussions and debates that lack conclusions because many of their current traditions are based on reconstruction. Due to many reasons, most local traditions have been disrupted by cultural hegemony. This means there is a rupture in the lineage of these spiritual practices and countless traditions have been lost. Many of the priests and priestesses in modern pagan communities have to be researchers and digital archaeologists as well: I think this is a huge reason why the resurgence of paganism is closely tied with widespread Internet access.
I noticed that the same ways of debating things without knowing which sources to point to is something that came up in many Christian communities as well. And I realized there was no reason for this because Jewish people are still here. The “Old” Testament isn’t old to them and despite the persecution they have experienced, Judaism still survives.
I’m not an expert on Judaism, but websites like My Jewish Learning helped me to understand things better. I learned to stay in my lane and just listen when Jewish people discussed different sects of Judaism and debated surrounding Reform Judaism.
The seeking and questioning that I see among many Christian theologians seems misguided because most of them ignore Jewish interpretations of the first half of their Bible. Why not consult the source? While many practitioners of paganism would love to have such a rich wellspring of knowledge and history, I wonder if it’s just pride among most Christian theologians or a misunderstanding of how key Jewish culture and Judaism itself is to their religion?
I am praying that we’ll see more Christians genuinely seeking and respecting the viewpoints of Jewish people regarding the Bible from now on. 🙏🏾 I think that could be the foundation of amazing interfaith work and allyship to Jewish people!
I think this article by “My Jewish Learning” is a good starting point: What Do Jews Believe About Jesus? Let me know if you have other recommended resources!
I purchased the Jewish Annotated New Testament for personal study and recommend that as well!
