Chas Clifton recently reviewed Emma Restall Orr’s book Living With Honour: A Pagan Ethics. Even before reading the book, I found the review (and accompanying discussion) well worth reading, and they have already pushed me to think more about how Heathen values relate to other systems and about the nature and origin of my own ethical values.

In one sense, the Heathen concern with family and community bonds, and with honor and reputation have always made sense to me: growing up in a New England village of 1,100 souls with relatives in neighboring towns, I knew that any actions I took would be a reflection upon my entire family as well as myself. I lived (and still live) in a culture where reputation definitely matters.

I find this culture satisfying in many ways but am less inclined to idealize it than my coreligionsts who come from the city or suburbs. People have always escaped to the city because they found their close-knit communities to be stifling, and I don’t ever want my decisions to be guided primarily by “what the neighbors would think,” which to me is a form of cowardice.

I’m afraid that I have nothing more profound to contribute on the nature or origin of Heathen ethics, and I don’t know that I will have a whole lot in common with Orr. However I’ve already found the review and discussion on Clifton’s blog to be delightfully refreshing, if only because an arbitrary system of rules laid down by [insert deity here] simply wasn’t part of the equation.