hi mandrake,

> Dear nagasiva yronwode, et al
> IMO this sort of article is important for expanding the 
> philosophical base for Paganism 

I liked the focus on aniconic religious, and i think that
a comparison with iconic religious, and what people take 
to be the role and character of material religious tools
and presentations, could be a very valuable study across
religious groups. the dynamics amongst Western religious
in terms of perception and actuality is also valuable to
focus upon (to mediate and reconcile disputes).

> and takes something that is characteristic, indeed 
> definitive, and developes the implied theology.

I think that i did that in a more combative way when 
engaging aniconic religious who told me that i was 
an idolater by explaining to them and those who were
party to the discussion that the implied theology 
was veneration of what i called "The Nothing God". 
the interest of the Nothing God, as i explained it, 
was to remove symbolism of all kinds, ultimately 
resulting in the cessation of all worship anywhere.
this took the dynamic to an extreme, absurd end. 

> Other commentators have shown how the Abrahamic 
> faiths are counter or reactive religions, 

this appears to me a massive exaggeration on par
with believing that Neopagans are idolaters in
that i have known iconic Christians and have not
found all Jews, Christians or Muslims to be 
reactive or counter, merely self-limiting in 
contact with other religious groups (as by 
restrictions of diet or the use of clay figures, 
or by requirement of genital mutilation).

> defined in contradistinction to others. 

this is in no way unique. religions separate 
themselves from proximate cults all the time by
stipulating things they do not do which their
sibling religious are known to do comparably,
or which they do that the others forbid.

> Thus Paganism is delineated in the Bible's first two 
> "commandments" - No god but me, no graven images.

my impression is that this was text by and for Jews.
Neopagans didn't exist then, and the Elohim group of
deities was contending for primacy, Yahweh providing
these writings of Moshe to Jews (aka the Yahwist).

> This also is part of the intellectual opposition 
> between "Israel" & "Egypt" - you couldn't think 
> of a more polytheistic and visual culture than 
> Egypt, and its obviously what the framers of 
> the decalogue had in mind.

so you are saying that the Jewish writers were 
trying to distinguish themselves from Egyptian 
religious as compared to other Jewish polytheists
such as those who worshipped El and Asherah or
something else?

> The issue of "idols" or to use an Egyptian 
> term "splendors" is also discussed in a 
> chapter of the Corpus Hermeticum, another 
> crucial Pagan text, and indeed this section 
> is a bone of contention between classical 
> Hermetic & Early Christian thinkers. ....

that puts the term into a more specific 
time-frame, thanks.
 
nagasiva yronwode ([log in to unmask]), Director 
  YIPPIE*! -- http://www.yronwode.org/
----------------------------------------------------- 
  *Yronwode Institution for the Preservation
   and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
-----------------------------------------------------