A Good Book?

[Kei]

hello.

my name is kei and i am new to this site.

I am a pagan (as i discovered very recently) and have been reading (and loving) as many pagan books as i can get my hands on.

 

as i only have a grand total of two pagan friends (both of whom i don't get to talk to much) i was wondering if anybody had and suggestions in the way of a good philosophical book(pagan or not) or maybe could suggest a less known form of paganism that i could possibly look up?

 

i feel kind of lost and there's so many books and forms i could look into.

 

i was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

 

thanks.

[HadouKen24]

What kind of paganism are you after? If you want "philosophical" pagan writings, you can't beat the pagan philosophers of Greece and Rome.

 

The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle is truly excellent, IMO. As different modern pagans and ancient pagans are from each other, they have one thing in common. They (usually) reject hard-and-fast rules about how to live in favor of an emphasis on being a good person and living a good life. However, there are not very many good books on exactly what that means from a pagan perspective. Aristotle took up these questions with his incisive intellect thousands of years ago, however, and while some of his answers only apply to life in the Athenian city-states, much of what he says in the Nicomachean Ethics is very relevant to modern pagans. This book is one of Aristotle's most accessible writings, but it is still quite complex, and the prose is very dry. It is not an easy book to get through. (Unless you're a big fan of philosophy, like me, and eat that kind of thing up.) That said, it is well worth the effort to go through it and digest it. If you're reading it on your own, I recommend acquiring a good commentary, as well.

 

As far as lesser known forms of paganism, I'd point you in the direction of the reconstructionist varieties. Several versions of paganism, such as Asatru and Hellenic Reconstructionism, attempt to revive and reconstruct the religions of some of the old Western pagan cultures. They're not for everyone, to be sure, but a lot of people have found a home in them.

[Kei]

What kind of paganism are you after? If you want "philosophical" pagan writings, you can't beat the pagan philosophers of Greece and Rome.

 

The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle is truly excellent, IMO. As different modern pagans and ancient pagans are from each other, they have one thing in common. They (usually) reject hard-and-fast rules about how to live in favor of an emphasis on being a good person and living a good life. However, there are not very many good books on exactly what that means from a pagan perspective. Aristotle took up these questions with his incisive intellect thousands of years ago, however, and while some of his answers only apply to life in the Athenian city-states, much of what he says in the Nicomachean Ethics is very relevant to modern pagans. This book is one of Aristotle's most accessible writings, but it is still quite complex, and the prose is very dry. It is not an easy book to get through. (Unless you're a big fan of philosophy, like me, and eat that kind of thing up.) That said, it is well worth the effort to go through it and digest it. If you're reading it on your own, I recommend acquiring a good commentary, as well.

 

As far as lesser known forms of paganism, I'd point you in the direction of the reconstructionist varieties. Several versions of paganism, such as Asatru and Hellenic Reconstructionism, attempt to revive and reconstruct the religions of some of the old Western pagan cultures. They're not for everyone, to be sure, but a lot of people have found a home in them.

 

 

thanks i will look into some of those