Capture A World Full Of Gods: An Inquiry Into Polytheism Created By John Michael Greer Shown As Script

fascinating, beautifully written exploration of the philosophy of neopaganism and, more broadly, polytheism, Though not all of his arguments are entirely sound, this book is strongest when it challenges commonlyheld assumptions about monotheism, paganism, and religion, It gave me plenty of food for thought and opened my eyes to the limited lens us Westerners view our and other peoples religious beliefs, Id absolutely recommend this to anyone interested in the philosophy of religion, This is the best book on polytheist theology one can read, It touches every subject and challenges the common notions of religion in general, It's short but it provides a lot of information, It's well written and promotes a lot of reflection needed for every pagan today, I'm looking forward to reading more of John Michael Greer's books, Very great read if you're new to polytheism or are considering polytheism, This is a fantastic book, It's the best theology book, that I ever read, The author doesn't waste the reader's time, trying to awe them with his intelligence, He goes straight to the weaknesses of the prominent ways of thinking on religious matters, in the modern West, I can't see why anyone wouldn't like this book,

Even though, the author seems to write about topics, that I'm not very interested in, I might have to pick up another of his books.
I liked his style of writing in this book, Also, I have heard interviews with him, and he seems like a kind, intelligence, and wise person, This was a really cool and thoughtful book, It has a similar style to Thomas Hobbes or David Hume, even if the arguments are not at all similar, There are playful analogies that break up more heavy intellectual and philosophic principles,

This IS NOT and introduction guide to help someone practice, get in touch with, or otherwise participate in polytheism, Instead this is a guide meant to help others see a polytheistic world view, How they can interact with and affirm some variety of Christian/monotheistic belief without ever agreeing to the whole, and how most atheistic arguments do not apply to a polytheistic world view, since a lot of the attributes they choose to attack in a god don't apply to polytheistic sense of deity.


It's a clear explanation and I think it will really help people trying to meet together for theological conversations, because it explains the mindset many polytheists come to the table with.


Well sourced and I highly recommend it, Wellthought out and clearly argued, I think Greer develops a very cohesive idea for the appropriateness of polytheism as a better religious domain for the world we actually inhabit, Thoughtful and thought provoking

Whether you are currently a part of Pagan spiritual movements or not, although perhaps especially if you are, this is a valuable and deeply pertinent discussion of the logic and philosophy of a polytheistic world view.
I find it resonant with and relevant to modern life and the many changes and challenges we are experiencing, I highly recommend this book to anyone, Impressionante. Um dos melhores livros que eu já li sobre filosofia da religião e sobre politeísmo de maneira geral, A argumentação do autor é plenamente coerente e, embora possa ser contestada como qualquer argumentação, é suficientemente clara e precisa para merecer ser levada em conta, Eu concordei com a grande maioria dos seus argumentos, Amazing

I dont necessarily agreewith the author, but I found myself agreeing with the sentiments of the book, Christianity, in my case, became the villain it accused everyone else of being, So dense. DNF Several people whom I respect recommended this title to me, but frankly, I found it dull, I have no problem reading academic works in general, so that wasn't the problem, Perhaps I'm just unfamiliar with writings on logic and philosophy, Despite agreeing with most of the points made, I just felt like something was missing, I can't imagine feeling the urge to reread this one any time in the next decade, This book is quite disorganized, though amusing and easy, and does not make a convincing case for polytheism, However, it makes a case for using a Merkur German name for the Roman god Mercury razor and for astronomers printing people's astrological birth charts using their telescopes to fund astronomy which is reportedly underfunded.
I would give it four for being entertaining if it did not contain wrong information at parts, and it does not even vaguely do what the title says perhaps for the better, as "polytheism" is a rather meaningless term.
Maybe closer toor., but there was enough food for thought and a rabbit hole of references for me to follow to get something interesting from this book,

Greer probably isn't going to convert anyone to polytheism, but he does prove his point that it makes at least as much sense as any other theism, and maybe slightly more sense than monotheism when you don't have just one allperfect god, it's easier to explain away why evil exists or why your prayers are just sporadically answered even when you click your heels together, crossed your fingers, and REALLY believed.


Some of the problems with this books is that it was written like a college essay, complete with references thrown around everywhere, References are obviously good, but Greer shoves them in all over the place, even when he didn't really need to reference anything to make his point, His references are also really old for some reason, Most of his research seems to have come from thes,

Also, I instantly distrust anyone that tries to tell me that prayer can heal people or do anything else, for that matter, Greer gives us just one study to back up his claim, but most prayer studies that have shown positive results have been proven to be very lacking or downright biased.
The studies that have been totally unbiased have shown that prayer can actually stunt recovery time for people who know they are being prayed for the theory is that, since god is going to heal them through prayer, they feel they don't need to do any work in getting better themselves.
This book was challenging and not an easy read, Although it's short just underpages, I found myself reading a few chapters, putting it down for a week or two, then picking it back up when I had the mental stamina, curiosity, and a fresh cup of coffee and a highlighter.
That said, this book is a wonderful discussion on the logic of monotheism, polytheism, henotheism, and atheism, among others, and how each system has its own pitfalls and strengths.
This would be a good read for a student of moral philosophy or philosophy of religion, It covers topics ranging from which system is most logical and which forms of proof are most appropriate in religious debates, to how myths should be interpreted and predictions on the future religious landscape.
It's helped shape the ideas of "divinity" in my mind and I am grateful for the author's hard work in putting together such a fine little treatise.
Given the rather shallow nature of a lot albeit not all contemporary Pagan literature, I found it refreshing that this author was willing to deal with the finer points of theology and engage with a wide spectrum of Pagan, Christian, atheist, and other theologians and philosophers.
The book started off very strong thanks to the author being obviously very well read and well versed in a broad range of philosophical and theological discourses.
However, I found the A World Full of Gods's treatment of the topic of Pagan ethics to be rather disappointing and superficial, I also found the author's insistence that others concerned with ethics pay too much attention to moral patients at the expense of moral agents particularly those concerned with the rights of unborn human beings and of animals but also all others concerned with moral patients too to be downright bizarre.
Similarly, for an author interested in challenging what he views as the eschatological bent of many other religions, I felt that Greer's discussion of what is problematic about the "myth of progress" and hints of looming environmental catastrophe strayed closer to that territory than would have been expected.
I see this book as ultimately throwing down the gauntlet to other writers working within the Pagan tradition to engage with their faith and the

ideas related to it in a more learned, systematic, and cerebral way.
Greer has just scratched the surface of the insights that Pagan and polytheist theology and philosophy have to offer, I hope his book serves as an inspiration to many others to pick up where he left off and to offer their own ideas in turn, This book is enormously helpful as a beginning resource into the differences between polytheism and monotheism in the areas covered by the topic of philosophy of religion: specifically, the ways in which polytheism quite rationally resolves many of the socalled problems of religion.
It is clearly written, and a reference I go back to all the time, It creates startingpoints for all kinds of research and reflection possibilities,

It should be stated that the book focuses on Neopagan polytheistic religions and not on any specific ONE of them,

The negative reviews I see seem to be written by people who misunderstood the purpose of the book, or were unhappy that it wasn't written for other goals, or simply failed to comprehend the prose.

In my opinion, this book is a mess,
I can only imagine it was written with the expressed purpose of being part of a college courses selected readings, It is written in the style of a scientific paper with constant citations, but the information from said citations is rarely more than a vague sentence that does not impart the valuable information necessary to complete his arguments.

While the style may attempt to be scientific, the tone is clearly conversational, His turns of phrase and poorly thought out examples are clearly written as if he is speaking them to an individual or group, which conflicts with his intention of having a well referenced work of research.
On top of this he take incredible care to be circuitous in his phrasing and word choice, Ideas that could be expressed simply and directly, seem not to have imparted his selfbelieved genius, so instead he takes the long winded and overly indulgent path to express his points.

Writing intention, style and tone aside, he spends at least half of the book discussing monotheism and atheism, The book should contain some information on the two for background and comparison purposes, but why call this "An Inquiry Into Polytheism" if just as much of the writing is an inquiry into monotheism or atheism.
Most of his arguments are circular and selfdefeating, he will discuss the flaws in monotheist and atheist arguments against polytheism only to turn around and use the same style arguments to attempt to prove polytheism is a more logical idea.
The book spends far too much time tearing down monotheism and atheism, and then using that as a basis to bolster the argument for polytheism, The argument that monotheism doesn't address this and atheist are following a wilful ignorance, therefore polytheism makes more sense, is itself nonsensical, Certainly it would seem that many of the points Greer makes in this inquiry are well researched and backed by quality information, but do to his choices to be vague when invoking previous works, the only way I can know for certain is to find and read everything cited in hispage bibliography this is almost as long as most of his chapters
To wrap this up, I would never recommend this book to anyone, unless they were curious to see how easy it is to get a book published when you can hide it in the guise of intellectual writing and actually have it make no sense and not contribute in any way to intellectual knowledge.
Speak in circles, use big words and choose a topic that cannot be proven right or wrong, and you'll be on your way to your first published book.
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