Christo-Pagan Booklists and Inspiration

[Ninjakitten]

Alright, what do you read for inspiration in blending Christianity and witchcraft/wicca/paganism? I read the Bible (not taking it literally, and using as a guide rather than the inerrant word of God), the Apocrypha, The Craft by Dorothy Morrison, Rebirth of the Goddess by Carol Christ, and anything I can get my hands on in my school library about goddesses and saints. I am also intending to read up on Hildegaard of Bingen as she was a saint who wrote about the feminine Divine, and even the Church didn't condemn her for that (so I heard, but I still need to research her).

I also read in a book called Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft which is a book of essays compiled by James R. Lewis, and it had an essay in it by Rev. Richard E. Kuykendall from the United Church of Christ (started a group called "Spiritwind" which welcomed talking about other religions and practices). The essay is called Where Christian Liturgy and Neo-Pagan Ritual Meet. It tells of how he learned some things from modern witches and other neo-pagans, and incorporated some of those things into worship at the church, which is here in California (I'd love to go there).

Another article from that book is Embracing Jesus and the Goddess: Towards a Reconceptualization of Conversion to Syncretistic Religion by Christel J. Manning, and it talks about combining religions and speculates on why people would do so on a social and psychological level. I haven't read that one in a long time, but I remember that it had influenced me to believe that it was okay for me to take what I need from spiritual traditions and personalize my own path to the Divine (while not forsaking things I find true in other paths that others already found out and made a religion out of those truths).

[Christo Pagan]

Anything by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy ("The Jesus Mysteries", "Jesus and the Lost Goddess", and "The Laughing Jesus") and Elaine Pagels ("The Gnostic Gospels", "The Gnostic Paul" and "Adam, Eve and the Serpent").

[Jolantru]

For me, Crossing to Avalonby Jean Shinoda is a good read. No doubt it's about a woman's midlife journey but it has good parts on how Jean Shinoda blends being a Christan and a follower of Goddess spirituality together.

Cheers,
Jolantru

[CleftOfLight]

The Lost books of Eden
The secret book of Tomas

[Dancing Sky]

Anything by Henry David Thoreau. He is probably my greatest influence, even greater than the Bible. I've always had that wandering spirit, that desire to live simply and stay close to Nature. He put into writing what I've always felt in my soul.

Thoreau has nothing to do with either Christianity or Witchcraft, but I adore his works and find him very inspirational.

[Anita]

I'm rather new to my particular path, christian druidry. I was brought up in the Anglican church of Australia so I've read a fair bit of the Bible over the years. I haven't read a lot about druidry and I've been struggling to find resources about a blend to the two. But on the druidry side of things the book I was lent by a celtic druid friend of mine to start with really was excellent.

Thorsons Principles of Druidry by Emma Restall Orr. It at least mentioned the possilbilties for a blended path.