Spotlight On… Contemporary Pagan Studies

Once On the Fringe, This New Field Is Rising

by Kimberly Winston, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 12/21/2005

Light the cigars and send out the birth announcements: with the publication of a first textbook, contemporary pagan studies officially moves from a quirky, offbeat area of study to a full-fledged academic field.

Introduction to Pagan Studies by Barbara Davy releases from AltaMira Press next August, just in time for the academic year. Though not the first academic title on modern practitioners of Wicca and other pre-Christian religions, it is the first textbook to look at the subject from the religious studies perspective. "It's not the kind of book that says this is what druids do, etc.," Wendy Griffin, co-editor of the book, told RBL. "It is much more significant than that. It talks about the importance of rituals, how symbols are used, about social organization, family practices and theology. It is an introduction to the study of paganism as a world religion" as opposed to an artifact of history.

Only recently have serious, academic books on contemporary paganism found homes at academic presses. Griffin credits this to a critical mass of graduate students and doctoral candidates ready to publish their work. In the past two years alone, such books have been published by Duke, New York, Pennsylvania, Columbia and Oxford university presses. AltaMira, a division of Rowman & Littlefield, was among the leaders in the field when it kicked off a series on contemporary paganism in 2004 with Researching Paganisms, edited by Jenny Blain, Douglas Ezzy and Graham Harvey. Three more books for the series are in the works: Her Hidden Children by Chas Clifton (June 2006) will look at the historical roots of contemporary paganism in the United States, with special emphasis on the 1960s. More Than Pointy Hats: The Material Culture of Modern Paganism by Douglas Cowan and Goddessing: Contemporary Women and Goddess Rituals by Wendy Griffin will follow in the next couple of years. Clifton, a professor of English at Colorado State University, Boulder, and Griffin, a professor of women's studies at California State University, Long Beach, are the series editors.

Palgrave MacMillan published its first in the field earlier this year with Contemporary Paganism: Minority Religions in a Majoritarian America by Carol Barner-Barry (March). Barry, a professor of political science at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, writes of the legal bias against pagans and other non-Christians and of their First Amendment struggles. Toby Wahl, senior editor at Palgrave MacMillan, said the book was intended for political science and legal scholars, but was reviewed favorably in several pagan magazines and journals--another indication that contemporary pagan studies has arrived. "Within the academic community there was a sense I got that [contemporary pagan studies] was not just a curiosity, but an area that made sense for [academics] to pursue in their research," Wahl said. And the book showed some surprising crossover potential. "It was very well received by the pagan community," Wahl said.