The pagan and the pious

Religious life in the powerlessness of the diaspora has an oddly pagan cast to it. In the primitive pagan religions the gods have supreme power while men and women emulate that supremacy by inflicting a similar sort of ruthless power on each other. The primitive pagan does not dain to challenge the divine with the exercise of his own power. Superstition and the habits of servility have separated the mundane away from divine so far that the divine is not even conceivably alterable by one's actions in the mundane realm. The purist religious man, in his piety, has likewise removed himself from encounter with the divine, from the possibility of affecting the interests of God. The pious have in general removed the matter of power from the issue of encounter with the divine, and, in so doing and in their own way, have emulated the servility of the pagan. 

By eliminating the matter of power, both the pagan and the pious have removed the question of hubris and reverence from the policy issues with which empowered men and women have to contend when they engage with the spiritual.