Paganism is the obvious religion for post-faith Britain

Paganism may be the obvious choice of religion for post-Covid Britain, where not only places of worship but voluntary groups of all kinds are suffering from crisis commitment and participation. This does not mean that people are no longer interested in religion. Rather, the culture of religiosity in an increasingly online world is moving steadily away from the Victorian model of bums in the pews; church attendance, for example, is not yet come back to pre-pandemic levels. It is clear that people who choose their own communities are drawn to “unorganized religion” – completely unregulated, self-initiated ways of connecting with the divine.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why paganism as reported the most popular religious choice for Britons leaving Christianity behind – unless they simply identify as non-religious. It offers people the opportunity to believe in something and participate in rituals while remaining part of a seemingly ancient tradition, but without being tied to an organization or institution that has expectations of its members.

There is no one type of paganism. There are many different “paths” rather than rigid sects and denominations, and most consider all paths to be equally valid. Neopaganism, as most people know it, began in Britain in the forties and then spread to the rest of the world. At first it was a deeply communal religion that emphasized group initiation and participation (and some pagan paths still emphasize this), but since the nineties the Hedge Witch movement has promoted the possibility of self-initiation and solitary practice. In recent years, the idea of ​​the solitary pagan has been amplified by online trends such as “Witch Talk”TikTok videos dedicated to self-realization spells and rituals.

The number of people who openly call themselves pagans in Britain remains small – just 74,000 respondents to the 2021 Census were willing to use the label to describe themselves. But rejecting paganism as a religion with a small number of adherents is not the most important thing. It is not just another religion that competes on equal terms with religions such as Christianity and Islam. This is different Kind a religion that seeks neither converts nor members. There is no such thing as a pagan profession of faith, which raises the question of whether it is even possible to “convert” to this religion. You just become a pagan by doing pagan things. It is a religion of action, not belief, and people may begin to do such things long before they identify themselves as belonging to that sect.

What is most remarkable about the progress of paganism in modern Britain is not its numerical growth, but its social acceptability. It doesn't seem countercultural anymore. The Green Man, who is immediately recognizable as a modern pagan icon. appeared on invitations to the coronation of Charles III, while Professor Alice Roberts – former President of Humanists of Great Britain and an avowed atheist – hinted that she might be open to identification with the label “pagan.”

Perhaps because it does not seek converts or make demands on believers, it attracts less hostility than Christianity and Islam from post-Christian and secular Britons. It was inevitable that paganism would become the religion of post-religious people. Archaic scriptures, pesky dogmas that demand consistency, admissions of guilt and membership obligations all seem quite a challenge in the 21st century. Take away all these features, and perhaps paganism is what remains.