Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms-- new book about religions doomed to extinction

[carolinayellowdog]

2. survival can take many forms

Hermeticism was a "loser" in power struggles, and the fate of the Alexandrian Library seems symbolic of its extinction. But while you can destroy scrolls, it is not so easy to destroy ideas, and Hermetic ideas survived via Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as "memes" that infected these hosts.

In the case of Native American tradition, I have some northeast NC family heritage that led me to attend a pow-wow of the Haliwa-Saponi and the museum at UNC Pembroke which is in the Lumbee/Tuscarora territory. In both cases, Christianity is the predominant religion-- and yet aspects of Native spirituality survive within it.

I've only finished the first chapter, on Mandaeans, but think I can see where the author is headed-- these groups will survive in diaspora, mainly in the US, after being destroyed in their homelands.