Northumbria, in its heyday the most advanced country in the island of Britain, was converted to Christianity by a single sparrow. Let those who are curious to know how listen to this ancient Anglo-Saxon unlocking his word-hoard more than 1350 years ago:

"It seems to me, beloved king, that the present time on earth, compared with that time of which we have no knowledge, is like when thou art sitting at dinner with thine ealdermen and thanes in winter-time, and the fire lit and thy hall heated, and it's raining and snowing and hailing; and there arrives one sparrow from outside and flies swiftly through the hall, and entering through one door, leaving through the other. Now, while he's inside he's not touched by the winter's storm; but that's only a twinkling of an eye and the shortest space of time, and from a winter he immediately returns to a winter. So man's life appears for a short interval: what went before it, and what comes after it, we don't know. Therefore, if this new doctrine brings forth anything more certain, it is only fitting that we should follow it."

So spoke this counselor at the witenagemot, the memorable meeting held by Edwin, the king, to decide whether to accept the new faith. And accept it he did.

The translation given here is a rather plain one. Other, older renderings give a more graphic description of the sparrow's flight and embellish the story by making the courtier's speech more logical and literary than it really was; and more moral to boot. Where its reasoning was rather pragmatic the modern words may not unambiguously convey this. What is more important is that a part of the story, namely an earlier speech by another counselor, may not be retold at all, as it almost never is.

I now refer to the counselor who had until then been the chief priest of the Northumbrian polytheists (called "pagans" by later monotheists) and who advised the king to embrace the Christian faith because it would be prudent to do so. His own devotion to the old Germanic religion had not done him much good, he explained, complaining that he had always obeyed the gods more zealously than others, had joined in their observances more carefully and joyfully than others, and yet had received fewer gifts and less benefit from it. Also this person fell for the new Abraham religion from South-West Asia as the old North-West European mythology had turned out to hold nothing of use anymore.

To be honest, it was not one lecherous sparrow all on its own that converted the king and his nobles and with them the whole of Northumbria, even if in name only. There were also the materialistic concerns so well expressed by the first counselor with almost equal pathos but considerably less imagination; and there was the fact that the king's Kentish wife was already a member of the church. It is the second counselor's speech tho, which -- at any rate among British Christianists -- is, perhaps, the best-known passage from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation. It has been offered as a key, not only to the success of Christianity, but to the general conditions and frame of mind in the Early Middle Ages. The brevity of life and existential uncertainty are recurrent themes in the literature of the time. And indeed, if the Christian doctrine with its apparently superior mythology did manage to lengthen (human) life, did reveal any 'true knowledge' not revealed by any other doctrine (science included), and if that knowledge were of a relevance not realized in any other doctrine, it would only seem and remain right to join the sparrow and not let it go.

However, when i^[1], in this day and age, look at the old denominational paradigm that has reigned until now, not only in the land between the Humber and Firth of Forth but in many other regions of the world as well, from the standpoint of the one to come, it seems to me, first of all, that the sparrow is not convincing anymore. There are weaknesses, if not fallacies, in the simile itself which should have been noticed immediately when it was introduced. The ancient assumed the weather outside the hall to be severe, with storms of rain, snow and hail raging, and 'e^[2] likened these wintry conditions to the times before and after people's short lives. So 'e did claim to know certain basic things about the period before birth or conception and the period after death, about human pre- and post-existence or nonexistence. Even life itself, of which everyone may claim to know something, is, however short, not a feast in a banqueting hall, safe from discomfort. While it may be sunny outside, the hall, too, will see the seamy side of life, and this will be experienced so long as there is life. Where there is no life at all anymore there simply is neither happiness nor unhappiness.

When i look at the old denominational paradigm that has reigned until now from the standpoint of the one to come, i seldom see a sparrow flying in and out of a banqueting hall. Believing it to be really safe and comfortable inside, with a wonderful fire warming the hall, by far the greater majority of today's sparrows stay inside, not in the least planning to vanish into the unknown; and certainly not planning to fly out on their own. Ignorant of what is to be found beyond the supernatural pale of heaven and hell, of deity and demon, they sojourn on this middle-earth for a short while only. The hall has doors but they will not use them. The sacred birds of Aphrodite, goddess of love, content themselves with the hot air near the ceiling, the bread crumbs on the floor, the liquid left over in the cups. They sing, but their dull song has not changed, not improved for centuries, for millenniums.

Similarly, most people may have followed and may continue to follow religion for selfish, limited social or utilitarian reasons (just as others may oppose it for the same, improper reasons). It seemed pleasant to them, was comforting and promised a happy after-life for those who submitted to it. They did not and do not want to be bothered with questions of truth: Can the happy after-life be made good? Has the world really been created by an anthropomorphic being, by one such being? With questions of relevance and inclusiveness: What matters, values or gods? Whence do the asymmetries between men and women, girls and boys, come; whither do they go? With questions of personhood: Is someone chosen, perhaps conceived, to be a Christian, a Muslim, or does 'e choose to be one? Most remarkably, they do not even want to be bothered with questions of happiness: Does it serve humanity's, even one's personal happiness in the long run to believe in a tribal, male, anthropoid god that epitomizes power as something perfect in itself? Is there no connection with ethnic troubles, with sexist attitudes, with a speciesist lack of respect for nonhuman nature, with power struggles in general, and religious warfare in particular?

Contemporary factual, modal and normative questions which have a direct bearing on the tenability of 'er^[2] total world-view are evaded by the sparrow of the old faith: 'e runs away from contemporary answers to them, 'e flees them. This is the flight of today's sparrow. Rather than following a denominational doctrine that knows how to deal with such questions in a better way, the convert to Christianism accepts a faith that does not pose them or that equivocates when asked about its myths, its symbols, its historical records. Worshiping one god instead of several (or many) the convert to monotheism accepts a faith that is equally theocentric and patriarchal as before; and still supernaturalistic, still exclusivistic and extremistic; sometimes less so, often more so. After having lingered in the King's banqueting hall for so many hundreds of years it is high time for the sparrow to leave thru that one door that opens out not only to a more moderate, well-balanced and harmonious life but also to an existence which, wherever it may be, is inclusive and genuine.

Languishing for want of a fresh view of contemporary matters and torn apart by its fundamental and symbolical contradictions the monotheist successor of polytheist religion is about to collapse itself today, after, perhaps, one or two short -- but goodness knows how bloody or oppressive -- revivals tomorrow. Just as the gods once became idols to be abandoned in favor of the one god, so that one God must in turn become Idol to be abandoned in favor of the Norm, the primacy of norms and values over all gods and demons. If a new doctrine brings forth anything more relevant and less untrue, anything more respectful to persons and less extreme, it is only fitting that we should follow it.