Heritage Presbyterian Church Adult Sunday School

1. P e t e r J o n e s
Director of truthXchange
A Worldview & Culture Teaching Series by Ligonier Ministries
Adult Sunday School
Summer 2019

2. Lesson Slide
4 2
Paganism in the Shadows
The Big Question
How can we make sense of the
breakneck spiritual and social changes
happening right now in our culture?
and
How should Christians respond?

3. Lesson Slide
4 3
Paganism in the Shadows
Lessons in the Series
1. Explaining Modern
Culture
2. The Rise & Fall of
Secular Humanism
3. Carl Jung’s Alternative
Spirituality
4. Paganism in the
Shadows
5. Paganism in the
Spotlight
6. Pagan Sexuality
7. From Personal
Spirituality to
Worldview
8. Where Is Society
Headed?
9. Unbiblical Responses
10.Articulating a Biblical
Worldview
11.Living in Holiness
12.Thinking with a
Discerning Mind

4. Lesson Slide
4 4
Paganism in the Shadows
Lesson Introduction
• The multitude of religions that we encounter in
modern culture may seem novel, but they are simply
the latest manifestations of the ancient pagan
traditions that have been known throughout human
history
• In this lecture, Dr. Peter Jones surveys numerous
religions, ancient and modern, and demonstrates
that they share the same essential commitments

5. Lesson Slide
4 5
Paganism in the Shadows
Scripture Reading
• Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food
and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a
Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the
substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting
on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about
visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not
holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished
and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a
growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the
elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in
the world, do you submit to regulations—"Do not handle, Do not
taste, Do not touch" (referring to things that all perish as they
are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These
have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made
religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of
no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
Colossians 2:16-23

6. Lesson Slide
4 6
Paganism in the Shadows
Teaching Objectives
1. To survey various expressions of paganism,
ancient and modern
2. To show that what Carl Jung offered was not
something new, but rather a repackaging of
ancient paganism
3. To demonstrate that despite the many
variations of pagan religion, they share the
same essential commitments

7. Lesson Slide
4 7
Paganism in the Shadows
Watch Lecture 4

8. Lesson Slide
4 8
Paganism in the Shadows
Study Question Answers
1. Since there is such a great variety of non-Christian
religions, it cannot accurately be said that they
share fundamental commitments. False
2. The phrase that encapsulates Wiccan ideology is as
above, so below.
3. The Perennial Philosophy is the fundamental notion
that nature is divine. True
4. The great work of medieval alchemy was to join the
divine and the human.
5. Gnosis means Knowledge.

9. Lesson Slide
4 9
Paganism in the Shadows
Origin of Contemporary
Spirituality
• Western culture is not entering unchartered religious
territory. Spirituality always grows from deep roots.
• Jung’s use of ancient pagan archetypes in psychology
was only new because of its application to modern
therapeutic techniques
• A new American wisdom tradition has emerged,
originating in the New Age phenomenon of the 1960s
but having more “balance” and correspondence to The
Perennial Philosophy
• In light of the highly visible position of Christian
orthodoxy in Western culture, we have not noticed the
growing presence of another spiritual alternative that
differs from both secular humanism and Christianity

10. Lesson Slide
4 10
Paganism in the Shadows
The Sleeping Giant:
Western Paganism
• The “rebirth” of the gods is now appearing on the surface of
our culture
• This rebirth is really the return to the West of an elaborate,
extensive, impressive paganism that in one form or another
has flourished throughout the entire course of human history
• Not this meaning: “Pagan” as ancient tribal religions or
immoral “godless” people
• This meaning: “Pagan” as (usually rural) people who held
onto their traditional folk religions after the arrival of
Christianity in cities and towns
• Those who call themselves pagan or neopagans nowadays
deliberately worship the earth or themselves as aspects of
the divine. They do not accept Christian orthodoxy’s claims
regarding the uniquely self-existent God of creation and
salvation

11. Lesson Slide
4 11
Paganism in the Shadows
The Perennial Philosophy
• Sometimes called philosophia occulta or magia
• The idea goes back into the mists of time
• The term coined in the late 17th or early 18th century by
mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz
• The term was popularized by Aldous Huxley, author of
Brave New World:
[The perennial philosophy recognizes] “a divine Reality substantial
to the world of things…and finds in the soul something similar to,
or even identical with, divine Reality…Rudiments of the perennial
philosophy may be found among the traditionary lore of primitive
peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed
forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions.” ~
Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
• Peter Jones says this is a perfect, sophisticated definition
of paganism

12. Lesson Slide
4 12
Paganism in the Shadows
A Philosophy of Many
Names
• Wiccan: “the Old Wisdom” encapsulated in “as above, so
below”
• Freemasonry: “Let that which is below be as that which is
above”
• Ancient Gnosticism: “I came to make [the things below]
like the things [above…]
• In various circles it is known as:
• The Great Secret
• The Eternal Script
• The Enlightenment
• The Forgotten Truth
• The Primordial Tradition
• The Old Religion
• The Great Work

13. Lesson Slide
4 13
Paganism in the Shadows
Prophesying the Pagan
Moment
• The reappearance of a variety of Oneist spiritualities that
have caught the imagination of multitudes of Westerners
was strangely prophesied as the coming world religion by
certain perceptive observers
• At the time such predictions were made, secular
humanism and Christianity dominated the scene; such a
mystical spirituality did not seem to stand a chance
• Friedrich Nietzsche and the coming of the Übermensch
(Super-human), the truly free new man for whom nothing
is forbidden except what obstructs his desire and ability
for self-realization
• Carl Jung and the esoteric, gnostic spirituality of “going
within” (searching for the god within)

14. Lesson Slide
4 14
Paganism in the Shadows
The Prophesies Come to
Pass
• Beginning in the 1960s, such prophecies of the coming
age of the spirit began to be “fulfilled”
• The underground perennial philosophy, known and
cherished by initiates, rose to the surface of Western
culture in Jung’s vision of a new humanity
• The current revival of spiritualism, ushered in through
therapeutic psychology and popular mysticism, has
roots deep in the long and troubled history of Creator-
denying paganism
• Its origin and nature help reveal the true identity of
these influences, being adopted since the middle of
the 20th century by people who assume such ideas and
practices are perfectly normal and good for the soul, a
breath of fresh spiritual air.

15. Lesson Slide
4 15
Paganism in the Shadows
Discussion Questions
1. How can the claim that non-Christian religions share
fundamental beliefs comfort Christians who are confused
at the bewildering diversity of religions in modern culture?
2. Thomas Berry believes that our contemporary calling is to
carry on the great work of the American Indians, following
their traditions and spirituality. Have you seen this pushed
in the portrayal of American Indians in modern culture,
whether through film or publications?
3. Have you ever interacted with a practitioner of Wicca or
another modern spirituality?
4. Prince Charles said that the sacralization of nature is what
will solve the environmental crisis of the twenty-first
century. Critique this statement from a Twoist
perspective.

16. Lesson Slide
4 16
Paganism in the Shadows
Next Lesson
The Sixties brought both a spiritual and a sexual revolution—
changes proposed and cultivated by Jung. Though seldom
violent, the cultural changes of the Sixties were just as world-
changing as those of the French Revolution—they entailed a
break with Western culture’s Christian roots, seeking a new
spiritual base in the religious heritage of the East

17. Lesson Slide
4 17
Paganism in the Shadows
Resources by Peter Jones
• Only Two Religions (study guide)
• Only Two Religions (evangelism tool)
• truthxchange.com (website)
• heritage-pca.org (website)
• The Other Worldview (book)
• The Pagan Heart of Today’s Culture
(booklet)