Professor Cannon’s basic description of the Way of Reasoned Inquiry is as follows:
The rational, dialectical struggle to transcend conventional patterns of thinking in the effort to attain understanding of, and consciousness-transforming insight into, the ultimate what, how, and why of things – that is, to bring together and unite, so far as possible, mind with the Ultimate Mind and thereby acquire a portion of divine wisdom. It typically involves systematic study of a tradition’s scripture and previous attempts to articulate what is ultimately the case.
(Note: All direct quotes from Six Ways of Being Religious are in bold type.)
This is the way of using spiritual philosophy, or written texts, or simply deep research into subjects touched by historical spirituality, to find one’s way to the Divine. Where the Way of Mystical Quest uses the non-intellectual part of the Mind, the Way of Reasoned Inquiry uses the intellect itself – and like the other paths, the intellect will be reshaped and purified by rubbing up against the divine mysteries.
The early Pagan revival wasn’t terribly concerned with keenly accurate writings and research; in fact some authors exaggerated or outright invented enough that we may never know how much of their claimed historicity or undocumented sources were true or were simply romantic storytelling. For all we know, Charles Leland may never have met any Italian witches and created Aradia out of whole cloth; for all we know, Gerald Gardner was never initiated by Old Dorothy Clutterbuck, who may have been a staunch Christian whose name he appropriated after her death. Various early Wiccan covens claimed that their lineage went back to all sorts of ancient traditions, and now we know nearly all of those claims to be false. Popular Pagan books were riddled with obvious historical errors and assumptions, some of which could have been easily disproven by cracking a couple of books. Focusing on the way of Sacred Rite, practitioners ignored “Is this historically accurate?” for “Does it move me?” For someone called by the Way of Reasoned Inquiry, this sort of thing is frustrating at best and maddening at worst.
Eventually some Pagans, drawn to the beauty of specific ancient cultures and their religious practices, began to gather together and recreate the rituals of those ancestral peoples, as best they could. Reconstructionist Paganism grew slowly but inexorably over the next few decades until now it accounts for a respectable percentage of the Pagan demographic. These denominations generally place a high value on scholarship in order to recreate, as closely as possible, the rituals and practices of the ancestral people. Obviously, some cultural practices such as slavery and human sacrifice are not appropriate to recreate today, but reconstructionist scholars have managed to uncover and piece together a great deal of good information about ancestral religious activities that might not have been easily available without their intellectual questing. Reconstructionists place a high value on orthopraxy, and some are beginning to reject the umbrella term “Pagan” in order to distance themselves from sects with less rigorous (or no) scholarly research. Some refer to themselves jokingly as “the religion with homework” due to their stress on textual study for, ideally, all members.
The first and most visible reconstructionists were the Heathens, who focused on Norse/Germanic religions. While some Heathen groups were growing up in the U.S., Iceland was seeing a movement to establish the original religion of the European settlers as a legal faith, which came to pass. Today, Heathenry has many different subgroups going by various names such as Asatru, Vanatru, Forn Sed, Theodism, etc. in several countries. Soon afterwards, Hellenic Paganism (reconstructing ancient Greek religion), Kemetism (reconstructing ancient Egyptian religion), and many others – Roman, Baltic, Babylonian, etc. – began to show themselves on the Pagan scene.
While most non-reconstructionist Pagan groups still focus more on inspiration than historical research, the presence of reconstructionists has encouraged better research across the Pagan demographic. Many Pagan authors are now more willing to do research, and more willing to be held to a higher standard of research when actually referencing history. The presence of the Internet, which helps with access to international and foreign-language research, has opened up a whole world of sacred scholarship as well.
“The Greek role of exegete was as a religious specialist who knew not only the techniques and rituals of a given tradition, location, and/or Deity, but also the history of those traditions and locations, and the myths of the Deity as these related to the practices involved. The word “exegesis” tends to be used for Christian interpretations of biblical passages in their historical context these days, but that activity can apply just as much to those who do this sort of work for polytheist traditions, not only based on historical sources and ancient sacred texts, but also their employment in modern contexts. An exegete’s proper activity is exactly this sort of exegesis, therefore! In Irish tradition, as well as wider Continental and Insular Celtic practices, such sacred scholarship was a part of the role of the filid, the poets whose roles in society were diverse and multi-faceted. The great body of tales known by the filid were often not simply myths, histories, or genealogical lineages, but were actual narratives that established legal precedent, for example, which tends to convey custom in ways not merely having to do with interpersonal and social law but also in relation to divine beings, which took on contractual elements in Irish tradition particularly (including into the Christian period).”
– P. Sufenas Virius Lupus, Hellenic and Celtic Pagan.