A ‘prominent liberal cleric’ in London has held an Islamic prayer service in his church, St John’s Waterloo. ‘We all share these traditions,’ he announced, ‘so let us celebrate our shared traditions, by giving thanks to the God that we love, Allah.’ How deliciously pagan of him.
One way ancient Greeks tried to make sense of the bewildering array of gods they came across was to make links between them, both in name and function. For example, the ‘father of history’ Herodotus tells us that Scythians worshipped Zeus, Apollo and Aphrodite under the names Papaeus, Oetosyrus and Argimpasa. All very St John’s.
But does this mean that ancient gods shared traditions? Certainly not. Herodotus makes clear the huge differences in practice between e.g. Scythian, Persian, Egyptian and Greek ritual. Likewise, given that with religions ‘older was better’, they all competed in making airy professions of antiquity.
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