Reddit reviews The Deities Are Many: A Polytheistic Theology (S U N Y Series in Religious Studies)

Lucy, are you in the sky? (Sorry, I know you made this username because of the song, I had to, though.)

Also, How did you find this subreddit? Did you just type "/r/pagan" after "www.reddit.com", or did you search reddit for "pagan", or something else? I'm curious as to how people find this subreddit. :)

Seriously, though...

>My problem, however, is that my initial religious education of "one god" is pretty well ingrained. How would you suggest I get past this so that I can continue to grow spiritually?

While I come from what is often considered a reconstructionist tradition, I think the following things would be helpful even if you are not a reconstructionist:

1. Read about how ancient polytheistic societies practiced and thought. When you read, try to get into the shoes of those people. If you've ever read a good novel and gotten into the heads of the characters, that's that sort of thing I'm kinda pointing to.
   
   
2. Some sort of practice, especially devotional practice (i.e. worshiping a god,goddess,or gods), even if it's part of a broader set of practices that include magic, meditation, or whatnot. I find that practice, and keeping in mind what I've learned from doing #1 helps solidify what I've learned. They may also lead to religious experiences that will help you grow out of a monotheistic frame of mind.
   
   It's not enough to believe things, you have to do them, too. Or else it's easy to say you think one thing, but actually do another.
   
   For #1, I'd recommend three books off the top of my head to you:
   
   

1. "World Full of Gods: An Inquiry into Polytheism" by John Michael Greer
   
   
2. "The Deities Are Many: A Polytheistic Theology" by Jordan D. Paper and,
   
   
3. "God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism" by Jonathan Kirsch.
   
   Since you're interested in Bast (sometimes called Bastet), I'd also suggest learning about ancient Egyptian culture and religion. Even if you never ever practice Kemeticism, I think it'd be a good place to start both unlearning monotheistic habits of thought and learning more polytheistic habits. And you'd get to learn more about Bast,to boot. But even if you don't do that, I suggest doing at least the first two things.
   
   If you can only borrow or find or buy one, I suggest one of the first two, but the third one is also good. The first two are written by polytheists, with Paper writing from his personal perspective, informed by Chinese religion and Native American religion, while Greer writes more generally. However, Kirsch's book is helpful, because it contrasts polytheism and monotheism side by side. Sometimes one can learn some what something is by learning what it is not.
   
   Sorry for the wall of text, I hope you find it helpful. It'll likely take a long time to unlearn what you've learned, but it's possible if you study and practice.

First of all, I'm not a Mormon. The fact that I'm having to deal with that accusation really doesn't speak well for your reasoning ability. I frankly couldn't be less impressed with the "if you don't agree with me then you must be a Mormon" mentality.

So, moving on from that, the claim that you are someone who has studied western culture, especially theology, is pretty doubtful considering all of the mistakes you are making.

Someone who has studied this wouldn't define Christianity by a belief in the Trinity. The amount of nontrinitarian contemporary (as well as historical) Christian churches is not insignificant. A person who studied this wouldn't define it by polytheism either, since Christianity came from early Abrahamic religions of which some were, in fact, polytheistic. Not only that, but some theologians would define the veneration of saints or idols (which is rampant in Christian history) as polytheistic. It's kind of a weird thing to think of it that way, but it's not uncommon.

Also, defining God as truth, beauty, and love doesn't really fit a theological argument either, and very few of the people you mention would have defined the concept in that way in any of their writings.

Yes, Mormons are Christians. The only people who disagree are Mormons in the mid 20th century and people with an axe to grind.

About the whole Bacchus thing, or the idea that to Mormons God is not the fabric of reality, I can't really comment on. I don't understand where you are coming from with that. I also don't get the rant about "figures," but maybe you define that in a different way than I do.

Edit: Sorry, my link was crappy. The book does talk about Christianity and polytheism, but it might be useful also to google the author, Jordan Paper, to get his take on things.