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Paganism is alive and well – but you won’t find it at a Goddess Temple

Religion, as a special category of life, is a modern, Protestant invention and the most anachronistic feature of modern paganism is that it so eagerly claims to be a religion at all

14 February 2015

9:00 AM

14 February 2015

9:00 AM

The first pagan temple to be built in Iceland for a thousand years has just been granted planning permission, a wonderful bureaucratic detail that shows up just how much this revival is polite make-believe. Ragnar Hairybreeks or Harald Bluetooth would not seek planning permission before building a place of sacrifice.

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Andrew Brown won the 2009 Orwell prize for his book about Sweden, Fishing in Utopia.

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