Big Think's "Iceland is Officially Worshiping Norse Gods Again"

Today website Big Think published an article on the revival of North Germanic paganism in Iceland called "Iceland is Officially Worshiping Norse Gods Again". The article featuring a brief interview with Emory University theologian Luke Timothy Johnson. Here is a quote from Johnson as produced in the article:

A fissure erupts in Fimmvörðuháls, Iceland, 2010. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

"Christian mission has always positioned itself as a rescue operation, that people were in desperate straits, were indeed under the influence of demons. ... It is impossible to read the reflections of Marcus Aurelius ... and not recognize a profound mode of religious expression. ... It is impossible ... not to recognize that [paganism] is the furthest thing possible from the demonic. It is indeed a form of religious expression from which we can learn much, and at the very least we need to respect."

Johnson doesn't comment on Germanic polytheism directly in the short interview, rather he refers to the Christianization of the Roman Empire and Roman polytheism in the article. However, given how misinformed media coverage of Germanic Heathenry as a new religious movement has been in both left- and right-leaning American media—usually landing somewhere between alarmist moral panic to dismissive curiosity—Big Think's article is notable in its approach.