medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> Since everyone else is getting in on this... My grandfather, soundly
> New England Congregationalist (i.e. Puritan) and from a long line of
> the same going back to before the American Revolution and back further
> to persecutions of Puritans during the restoration in England... Had
> nothing to do with any of the formulas for planting which were based
> on religion... I remember him poo-pooing one of them specifically. It
> was simply, if there is a full moon around the end of May, plant; if
> not, hold off for the full moon. This was of course for Maine and I am
> sure would not apply to Virginia.
Kerry,
This is perhaps not "Christian" religious, but I hope you will not be offended if I suggest that
your grandfather may, in fact, have had some pagan leanings, in the form of "natural
religion". I'm beginning to believe that agriculture, in the pre-modern world (and to a
surprising extent in the modern world, as well), was really too important to let mere
"organized religions" interfere with the supernatural beliefs about how it worked. There is
nothing, after all, in Christian theology that can directly affect the success of one's crops or
the fruitfulness of one's livestock. Christianity certainly adapted itself to such ends, but the
ends themselves transcended any specifically Christian involvement with them.
Synchretically,
Jim Bugslag
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