For those of us (believers) who’ve decided to speak up in truth and love against blasphemy or mockery, particularly in the form of paganism, here is a matrix of responses to consider.
There are four different methods one can employ in addressing the resurgence of paganism and its cultural expression in pagan art.
The first method is to emphasize Truth. This is the method used by most rational apologists or defenders of the faith. (Admittedly, this is the approach I once practiced.) However, since emotions and experiences play a major role in art, especially in paganism, reason alone may miss the mark when explaining reality, speaking more to intellectuals than to artists. My encouragement to rational apologists is to incorporate more emotional language using feeling words, as well as metaphors and stories with literary and cultural references into their arguments. For example, given the French rendition of the pagan celebration of Dionysus during the opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympics, I believe a thoughtful Christian response would be better received if we champion a story that makes the event more personal.
Given the child in the scene of the “Festivity,” we could ask our interlocutor(s) if they would feel comfortable imagining their son or daughter in the child’s place. If they want to continue with their claims of tolerance and inclusivity, they will have to agree. Now we can bring in some pagan literature to bolster our argument—explaining what Dionysus symbolizes: wine, histrionics, freedom, intoxication, insanity, and ecstasy. We can also remind them that the Romans adopted the Greek gods and renamed them. So in this case, Dionysus became Bacchus, and a celebration in his name, Bacchanalia, became a Roman rite replete with riotous drinking and dramatic performances meant to fulfill any and every primal desire, including orgies, up to several times a month. Finally, we drop the emotional hammer with a revealing question: “How do you feel now having your son or daughter used for the sexual pleasures of men and women in ongoing drunken orgies meant to appease a mythological deity?”
The second method is to emphasize Beauty. This is the method used by most Christian artists sometimes at the expense of Truth and Goodness. It is best encapsulated by Dostoevsky in The Idiot: “Beauty will save the world.” A follow up question by Hippolyte to Prince Myshkin, however, exposes its Achilles Heel: “Which beauty?” The beauty of paganism? The beauty of pedophilia? The beauty of hieros gamos? Which beauty are we talking about? My suggestion to Christian artists is not to isolate Beauty from other transcendentals, namely Truth and Goodness, but to incorporate them into the conversation. See method four.
The third method is to emphasize Goodness. This is the method used by most Christian ascetics. If there is a spiritual discipline hated most by pagans, it’s probably this one, not Goodness itself but the practice of self-denial or abstaining from worldly or sensual pleasures. Pagans, who seek the worship of and oneness with nature, practice it not least because there is typically a pleasure that is being fulfilled. I know for Nietzsche this is what he detested most about Christians—their rules of do’s and dont’s leading to piety with no room for pleasure. His pagan avatar of Dionysus says it all—pleasure via intoxication or overindulgence, and sexual immorality or surrendering to the primal aspects of human nature. This method is also practiced by most Christian ethicists or moralists, particularly of the deontological denomination. (Deontology is moral obligation or rule-based ethics, which identifies an action as morally good because of some identifying characteristic—for example, showing kindness for kindness’s sake—opposed to an action being good because of its product or end-result.) But most of the pagan artists I know are not bent toward deontology but toward teleology, which means they derive some sense of duty from what is desirable as an end-goal to be achieved. So kindness is not practiced for kindness’s sake but for the result it brings like fulfillment. My suggestion to my Christian deontological friends is to interweave words like “fulfillment” into the discussion. This will also aid in dispelling the religious stereotype of a prudish demeanor and behavior, which ostracizes Christians not only from pagan artists but artists in general.
And the fourth is to hold Truth, Goodness and Beauty in harmony. This is the method used by cultural and imaginative apologists. I believe it shows real promise in combating paganism in general, and pagan art more specifically. The strength of this view is that with the ontological assistance of all three transcendentals, Christianity is simultaneously better represented and defended, while exposing the weaknesses of paganism.
However, this syncretist view of Truth, Goodness and Beauty can do very little to change pagan desires and influences if Christians don’t practice praying for their pagan friends.