Living With Honour - A Pagan Ethics

"Living With Honour" is a provocative and uncompromising exploration of how Paganism can provide the philosophical guidance to live honourably in a twenty-first Western society. Part One explores the history of Paganism, its undercurrents of anarchy, heresy, environmentalism and animism, finding its place within the history of Western philosophy. Questioning the morality of some reaches of modern Paganism, it presents a context of nature-based animistic Paganism, and proffers a contemporary understanding of honour.Part Two addresses key moral issues from that animistic perspective, beginning with the foundation of human relationships and attitudes towards the Other. It considers how these play out in our practical relationships with friends, colleagues, children and those with whom we have an intimate bond, including the love affair, commitment and polyamory. Exploring how we value life, it looks first at human life, dying, suicide and euthanasia, birth, abortion and IVF. It then examines the human abuse of nonhuman animals, discussing sentience, personhood and inherent value. Considering the environment, it explores the worldview of nature as a resource, and presents an animistic understanding of nature's sanctity, and how sustainable relationship can be achieved. Finally, it focuses on current global crises, exploring need as opposed to desire. While ethics may be agreed, willingness to compromise desire for ethics is less easy.Part Three explores the factors that hinder ethical action, allowing careless passivity: fear, habit, a sense of impotence and a disconnection from the environment. It considers free will and the powerful fuel of deep inspiration. This is the first book to give an account of ethics from a pagan viewpoint for the modern world.

Review: This is an excellent pioneering work, erudite, courageous and imaginative, that provides a new kind of ethics, linked to a newly appeared complex of religions, which are founded on some very old human truths. Professor Ronald Hutton, world expert on paganism and author of The Triumph of the Moon and many other titlesThis is a lively, sensible and careful attempt to make sense of some very confusing, and yet important, areas of modern thought. I particularly like the clear style and the attention that the author gives to parts of the historical background which are usually misunderstood. I think the book should interest a wide audience. Mary Midgley, philosopher, author of Science as Salvation and many other works.