Dr Robin Douglas

I recently appeared on the Katharsios Press podcast to talk about the idea of the Great Goddess in ancient and modern paganisms.

During the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, several pagan intellectuals published works attempting to discredit the new faith. Three works in particular are worthy of mention: Celsus’ True Doctrine (c. 170s CE), Porphyry’s Against the Christians (3rd century CE), and the Emperor Julian’s Against the Galileans (362-363 CE).  For reasons of censorship, these texts survive only in fragmentary form,…

“When Jesus had been born in Bethlehem in Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, magoi arrived in Jerusalem from the east….” The magoi – the ‘kings’, or ‘wise men’ – who are mentioned in the second chapter of St Matthew’s Gospel have been the subject of much speculation over the centuries. Who were they? The New Testament…

A further post in my series republishing The Folklore of Herbs (1946), a book by Katherine Oldmeadow, who was a significant figure in the British pagan revival. CHAPTER X. HERB GARDENS OF THE PAST. A modern writer on gardens has described their architecture as “a roof of trees, an upper storey of shrubs and a ground floor…

A further post in my series republishing The Folklore of Herbs (1946), a book by Katherine Oldmeadow, who was a significant figure in the British pagan revival. CHAPTER IX. THE FOLKLORE OF HERBS. There is a tradition that Adam named the animals and Eve the flowers. An old bishop, who had no doubts about the truth of…

Asking Virgil’s ghost for advice Over the years, a number of scholars of classics have had an interest in the paranormal. Perhaps the best-known is E. R. Dodds (1893-1979), who is the only person in history to have served simultaneously as Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford and President of the Society for Psychical Research.…

The Antichrist is a character in the Bible who is destined to conduct a reign of terror at the end of time. He is Christ’s eschatological counterpart and enemy. Where does the idea of the Antichrist come from? Last month, I wrote about the tradition of apocalyptic literature more generally. The Antichrist fits comfortably into…

Originally posted on my Substack on 29 November 2024. It is sometimes assumed that Christianity in the West decisively gave way to secularism in the 1960s. The eminent historian of religion Francis Young has recently given a talk at Ely Cathedral in which he put forward what might be described as a revisionist take on this idea.…

A further post in my series republishing The Folklore of Herbs (1946), a book by Katherine Oldmeadow, who was a significant figure in the British pagan revival. CHAPTER VIII.HERBS IN THE BIBLE. “And one went out into the field to gather herbs” – 2 Kings, V. 39. A whole book, and a very interesting one, could be…

A piece of Catholic folklore This article examines the history of a piece of Catholic folklore – the story that Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) saw a vision of demons one morning in the Vatican. It is said that Leo was inspired by his vision to write a prayer to St Michael, the vanquisher of demons,…