Easing the Transition From Another Faith

Witchy Wisdom
1

I became a witch in the summer of 2020(future proofing this post) after dipping my toes in Wicca for 25 years. :open_mouth: During the preceding years I was raised an ultra conservative Western style evangelical Christian. Coming to terms with things like heaven, hell, angels, demons, sin, Satan, etc., has been brutal. No one should have to go through that.

I have seen a lot of posts from people that are struggling with their Christian upbringing in particular. :frowning_face: This is my attempt at helping them with their own journeys. The following resources have helped me on my journey. Feel free to check any or all of them out. They are from Agnostics, Atheists, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, progressive Christians, scholars of all kinds, and Wiccans. Obviously, none of these sources would totally agree with each other or with me, but hat is the wonderful thing about being human: taking in vast amounts of information and making up our own minds.

I DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. In fact, my beliefs are a syncretism of Christianity and Wicca. :grin: (As a reminder, any posts attacking another’s faith or each other are against the rules of Spells8 and those posts will be deleted. This is only a guide to help others. )

:waxing_crescent_moon: :full_moon: :waning_crescent_moon:

Edit: I made the below post a wiki for others to edit, if they want.

12 Likes
2

Books (alphabetical by author’s last name)

  • 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation
  • The Apocrypha
  • The Jewish Study Bible: Second Edition
  • The Jewish Annotated New Testament: Second Edition
  • God: A Human History (by Reza Aslan)
  • Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (by Reza Aslan)
  • What is the Bible? (by Rob Bell)
  • The Skeletons in God’s Closet: The Mercy of Hell, the Surprise of Judgment, the Hope of Holy War (by Joshua Ryan Butler)
  • How to Read the Bible (by Marc Zvi Brettler)
  • Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: Third Edition (by John J. Collins)
  • The Apocryphal Gospels (by Bart Ehrman)
  • How Jesus Became God (by Bart Ehrman)
  • Jesus, Interrupted (by Bart Ehrman)
  • Lost Christianities (by Bart Ehrman)
  • Misquoting Jesus (by Bart Ehrman)
  • The Bible with Sources Revealed (by Richard Elliott Friedman)
  • Sapiens (by Yuval Noah Harari)
  • Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (by Amy-Jill Levine)
  • The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary (by Seyyed Hossein Nasr)
  • Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into The Disappearing Religions of the Middle East (by Gerard Russell)
  • Pentateuch: A Social Science Commentary (by John Van Seters)
  • The Early History of God (by Mark S. Smith)
  • The Origins of Biblical Monotheism (by Mark S. Smith)
  • Stories From Ancient Canaan: Second Edition (by Mark S. Smith)
  • Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible: A Guide to the Background Literature (by Kenton L Sparks)
  • The Evolution Of God (by Robert Wright)

Web Links - Too Many To List. Here Are The Highlights

YouTube

Wishlist - Resources I Still Want To Study

  • The Islamic Jesus (by Mustafa Akyol)

  • The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler)

  • Adam, Eve, and the Serpent (by Elaine Pagels)

  • Beyond Belief (by Elaine Pagels)

  • The Gnostic Gospels (by Elaine Pagels)

:sparkles: This is a Wiki Post - Feel Free to Edit :sparkles:

8 Likes
3

This is so healing :pray: and the resources are all very high quality!

I will make sure to share it with anybody that may need to see this. Thanks so much for sharing, Benjamin!

5 Likes
4

This is such a wonderful and thoughtful resource, @praecog29 :blush: I agree- people find their way to witchcraft from various other religions (many of them from Christianity in particular!) and this is a fantastic list to help people as they build their own beliefs. Your words of support and encouragement are also appreciated :two_hearts:

Thank you so much for taking the time to share these books and links- I imagine they will help others like they have helped you! :pray:

Bookmarking to share with others in the future! :grin:

3 Likes
5

@praecog29

I just discovered this post, and I think it’s such a valuable resource. Thank you so much for creating this, now I have a lot of reading to do. :rofl: I love learning new things, so it will be fun.

Love :heart: always

3 Likes
6

Oh my I’m going to be looking at this. Thankyou @praecog29 for starting this, and thankyou @marsha for refinding so we can see this. Fabulous :sparkling_heart:

3 Likes
7

Thank you for sharing this post, or at least refreshing it so that others with questions or similar experiences can have a place and/or space to reference back to, or share. :heart:

4 Likes