Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and Christian in Dialogue

by Philip Johnson, Gus diZerega

A fascinating dialogue between a Pagan and a Christian. Gus DiZerega, an American pagan and and an academic engages in debate with Philip Johnson, an Australian Christian theologian. The two debate questions such as the nature of spirituality, who or what is deity, how humans relate to the divine, the sacred feminine, gender and sexuality, and the teachings and claims of Jesus. At the end of the book another Pagan writer comments on what Philip Johnson has argued, and another Christian comments on what Gus DiZerega has argued. Paganism is acknowledged as the fastest growing 'religion' in western Europe and this book helps readers to engage with it and with orthodox Christian belief.

208 pages, Paperback

First published June 20, 2007

About the author

Philip Johnson is an Australian author and theologian. He divides his time between writing and supervising students undertaking theological studies. He has had the "writer's bug" since childhood, and enjoys reading just as much as writing. He has a range of avocational interests in films, is a lifelong fan of the BBC science-fiction show Doctor Who, and of authors such as John Le Carre, J.R.R.Tolkien, C.S.Lewis, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Herge.

He is a graduate of the University of Sydney (BA & BD), and of the Australian College of Theology (MTh). He also studied (by audit only) Animal Law in 2005 at the University of NSW. He has been a guest lecturer at Morling College in apologetics and alternative religious movements. He has co-written several books with Ross Clifford, and one also with John Drane with books published in Australia, England and the United States of America. He has contributed chapters to other books including Encountering New Religious Movements (Kregel 2004), Pop! Goes the Witch (Disinformation, 2004), and Tough-Minded Christianity (B & H Academic, 2008). He has written over 100 articles in various Australian periodicals and also been published in peer-review journals such as Australian Religion Studies Review, Lutheran Theological Journal, and Missiology. He is currently working on two books about animals and Christianity.

Philip has an author blog called Animals Matter to God, and a book-blog for The Cross Is Not Enough

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent model of productive dialogue between a pagan and a Christian. I learned a LOT through this.

[Timothy Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

So let me start by saying that I think this is an important book, if unfortunately, not a very good one. Everyone involved should be commended for their effort.

I picked this up at a Renaissance Festival several years ago. There was a pagan/wiccan/new age book shop close to the entrance and while I myself am Christian, who can pass up a bookstore? Also my brother had recently turned to Wicca and I was looking to understand his thinking better. Well this book came home with me and stared out from my shelf ever since. Things with my brother didn't go well, not religion but several horrible life choices, and I only recently decided to read it or sell it off. I'm glad I read it and will be keeping it as it has a pretty decent bibliography.

So the book. A Pagan and a Christian walk into a bar and decide to talk about their faith and then get judged at the end. The Pagan side was enlightening for me, and while I can't confidently say I fully understand all his points, I'm much closer than I was before. The point of this book wasn't to proselytize but explain and for the most part he did very well. There was once or twice where both sides (and one judge at the end who it seemed was only there to criticize one side) needled the other side when they weren't supposed to but I guess that's par for the course. I actually had more problems with the Christian side of the book. The Pagan side explains his view from his particular brand of Paganism and it reads smoothly. The Christian seems to come from some non-denominational place and by trying to incorporate the vast corpus of Christian thought, ends up delivering weak sauce. I found myself disagreeing with the Christian more than the Pagan. Then we come to the end of the book where a new Christian judge comes in and gives her thoughts on the discussion and gives a balanced overview of everything that came before and asks for understanding all around. Good for her. Then the Pagan judge comes in and spends his chapter criticizing everything the Christian said and declares his side the winner in a contest no one was participating in, it was kind of bizarre.

And yet, despite a not too great representative for team Christian and a judge at the end who didn't seem to know he wasn't there for that, I'd still recommend this book. To borrow from Star Trek something that even its writers have forgotten, Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. We need to be able to understand the view of some one else, especially if we don't accept it. This book takes a small step in that direction, warts and all.

[Clark Goble · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was actually loaned to me by a Wiccan friend who knew I would enjoy it. The subject matter of the book echoed many of the debates and discussions my friend and I have had and the authors were obviously well informed and knowledgeable regarding their faiths. The book strives to create an atmosphere of “dialogue” rather than “debate,” and achieves that goal well. I thought Johnson represented the Christian viewpoints with love and respect towards his counterpart and that diZerega presented his [Wiccan] thoughts with a great deal of intelligence despite my disagreement with his views.

My biggest complaint regarding this book was in its layout. Each chapter covers a different topic and gives the floor first to diZerega to present the Wiccan vantage point and then to Johnson for a Christian response. In each chapter, Johnson was given the advantage of reading diZerega’s essay before writing while diZerega was never given the same opportunity. In my opinion, this gave Johnson an unfair advantage. However, even with this advantage, Johnson never really blows diZerega out of the water … even though he was given ample opportunity (and ammunition) to do so. Given the polite forum of this discussion, I suppose neither author’s goal was to destroy his counterpart; however, I still think Johnson played it a little too nice. diZerega seemed far more pointed than Johnson in his critique of Christianity and it is my opinion that Johnson missed several opportunities to point out weaknesses in diZerega’s views.

I did find it interesting that, once again, the Wiccan in question seems to have formulated his opinions of Christianity as a result of a bad experience with Christianity in his younger years. I often find myself wondering if Christians who represent their faith poorly aren’t the chief cause of Wicca’s current popularity.

I recommend this book highly for anyone interested in the subject matter. Due to the flaws in the layout of the book, I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who is on the cusp of making a decision between the two faiths, but it is interesting and informative.

[Megan]

i read the first chapter for a test in ela. but i would really like to read it in the future. i read the 1st chapter and i wish i could read more of it please do read it i also read the last few pages and i was very good