Argument from the Saints II: Pagan Deities
Another Unorganized Argument
Sometimes folks who think themselves clever point out parallels between Catholic veneration of saints and the pagan worship of idols. Are not both given shrines and assigned little fiefdoms of creation to reign over? Is not “Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Scholars” just a Catholic translation of “Athena, Goddess of Wisdom”? Even if there were a historical connection between the veneration of saints and the pagan gods (and I have no reason at all to believe there is; one arose out of admiration for those totally dedicated to Christ, the other from dark roots in prehistory), this is the exactly wrong way for a Christian to read the situation. Wherever there are parallels between Christianity and older faith traditions, we always read them as anticipations of the full truth, what Lewis called “good dreams,” which God liberally scatters in even the strangest religions. If Christianity is the truth, then we should expect that there are all over wise men and women leaning homeward, straining to hear the voice of Christ coming faintly on the wind. The saints capture the pagan intuition that there are authorities appointed to watch over specific domains, but complete it with the Christian knowledge that these figures have authority chiefly to pray and intercede, and they have it only in virtue of God’s sovereign rule.
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