October 08, 2019

Is Astrology Antithetical to Christianity?

2 hours 10 minutes

In episode 226 astrologer Nate Craddock joins the show to discuss the early history of Christianity and its relationship with astrology.

Specifically, we focus on the question of whether astrology is somehow inherently antithetical to Christianity, especially in terms of the origins of the religion during the time of the Roman Empire.

Nate is a practicing astrologer, as well as an ordained Christian priest with a degree in divinity. You can find out more information about his work on his website:

SoulFriendAstrology.com

The jumping off point for our discussion was the work of a scholar named Nicola Denzey Lewis, and her 2013 book Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity. Part of the purpose of the book is demonstrating how a number of influential early Christian texts framed the religion as a way to liberate yourself from astrology and fate.

Astrology in the 1st century CE tended to be more deterministic and influenced by Stoic conceptualizations of fate, and to some extent Christianity may represent one of many religious or philosophical groups in the ancient world that offered an alternative, which may then explain part of its initial appeal to everyday individuals in the Roman Empire.

This then set up a sort of oppositional relationship between astrology and mainstream Christianity for a number of centuries, although it raises the question for us today of whether the two are inherently incompatible, or if there are ways that they can be reconciled?

Nate's answer to this question is emphatically "yes, they can be reconciled", and during the course of the discussion we ended up covering a lot of ground, and exploring a number of different historical and theological areas.

This episode represents an important followup to earlier episodes of the podcast discussing responses to religious criticisms of astrology, the role of astrology in the story of the Star of Bethlehem, as well as a brief digression about the purpose of finding the guardian spirit about 2 hours into the episode on finding the overall ruler of the birth chart.

For those who enjoy this discussion, you would also like Nate's podcast Jailbreak the Sacred.

This episode is available in both audio and video versions below.

Timestamps

Here are some timestamps for topics covered at different points in the episode:

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:10 Nate's background

00:03:15 Chris' background

00:04:50 Astrology and fate

00:06:40 Protestant Reformation

00:08:00 Stoicism

00:08:50 Determinism

00:10:40 Chart is like sheet music

00:12:00 Christianity and free will

00:15:15 Early Christianity

00:17:30 Christian issue with fate

00:18:56 The Bible's contrasting views

00:22:30 History of the Hebrew people

00:25:30 Phases of history of astrology

00:31:00 Divination and Christianity

00:35:50 Bible passages against planetary gods

00:40:35 Hellenistic astrology

00:42:26 New Testament era critiques

00:45:55 Providence and fate

00:51:17 Being a Christian frees you from fate

00:57:08 33 CE and thema mundi

00:58:00 St. Paul

01:00:05 Baptism

01:02:14 Astrology in book of Romans

01:04:00 Christian sects

01:05:25 Biblical Greek

01:07:50 Aversion to embodiment

01:18:50 Escape from astrological determinism

01:21:00 Appeal of early Christianity

01:24:45 Jesus cancelled death

01:27:35 Daimons and guardian angels

01:31:55 Nativity story is pro-astrology

01:42:50 Criticism of Paul's cosmology

01:43:22 Oscar Romero chart

01:45:02 Bringing healing to the whole world