The Quest for the... Secular Humanist Grail?

Recently I've been watching the new BBC series Merlin, which follows the adventures of its namesake as a young man freshly arrived in Camelot. It's a solid enough work, not brilliant but with a certain undeniable charm. The series spins a lot of the accepted Arthurian mythology on its head, set in a fully developed kingdom of Camelot ruled by Uther Pendragon (portrayed by Anthony Head, the absolute highlight of the show), and substantially altering the origin stories of not only Merlin himself but of Launcelot, Mordred, Excalibur, and Guenivere among others. I can hardly fault it for that, as every retelling of a classic substantially alters the story (else it would be merely a telling and not a re-telling); and I must admit, it's a lot of fun to see Merlin portrayed as a naive and sometimes foolish lad, Guenivere as a plucky peasant girl, and Arthur as an arrogant bully in dire need of some lessons in compassion and humility. The plot and themes display a markedly modern sensibility (and plenty of anachronisms), and though they don't entirely erase issues of patriarchy and classism, they are minimized seemingly in the interest of relating to modern audiences.

There is one particular thing about the series that I find fascinating, however. Uther has outlawed the practice of magic and punishes any transgression with death; dark references are made to a 'purge' of magicians conducted during the establishment of his kingdom, and he presumes all magicians and witches to plot against him and threaten to destroy law and order. The symbolism is fairly obvious, as it was in the BBC's recent production of Robin Hood. But what really draws the attention is the complete absence of the actual historical reason for the persecution of Druids and witches. In the mythical world of Merlin, magic is very real; but Christianity does not seem to even exist. There is nary a crucifix to be seen. There are no references made to Christ, God, or Satan. Camelot seems to be home to neither a church nor priests of any sort. Uther's persecution of witchcraft is constructed as an entirely political act, and most other characters on the show are at worst neutral toward it; many see magic as an innocent practice or a useful tool, and none but Uther seem to consider it inherently evil.

Not only is the Arthurian cycle steeped in Christian mythology (Holy Grail, anyone?); the history of medieval Britain makes little to no sense without the influence of the Church in both suppressing pagan cultures and buttressing the feudal order. The thought that Uther Pendragon is singlehandedly responsible for establishing a feudal social order in the midst of tribalism and anarchy is somewhat ludicrous. I'd be curious to know more about why the decision was made to scrub any reference to Christianity or Christian concepts from the show. Is this some sort of off-kilter attempt at political correctness? Perhaps the writers or producers were unwilling to deal with the cognitive dissonance of writing Christians as the villains and pagans as a persecuted underclass; perhaps they felt that throwing religion into the mix would interfere with the political symbolism they were attempting to lay out, or that a default-secular society was more in line with the modernistic tone they were trying to set; or perhaps they feared protest from Christians unhappy with being portrayed as paranoid tyrants. If the latter is the case, could the complete removal of their influence from one of the most famous and powerful non-Bible-based Christian legends not be seen as arguably more insulting? In any case, it seems a little problematic to me to build an entire series around the persecution of witches in medieval Britain without so much as mentioning the Church. It feels a lot like letting them off the hook for the Inquisition and the Witchfires.

On the other hand, Merlin and many of the other Arthurian characters have always seemed to me a bit of a problematic symbol for a Christian legend. Merlin supports Arthur, an explicitly Christian hero, yet uses magic and represents a suppressed Pagan culture. Arthur is besieged by explicitly pagan figures, yet he is given Excalibur, his source of power, by the 'Lady of the Lake', a thinly disguised Celtic goddess. In the BBC series this uneasy alliance is transmuted into political conflict, with Merlin forced to hide his magical abilities even as he uses them to help and protect Arthur. While Arthur makes use of his companions' magical abilities, he remains 'just a man' while it seems all of his opponents are users of magic. Another item of interest is that, while the characters all speak perfectly modern English, the 'magic words' used by witches and sorcerers have a distinctly Celtic feel to them; though I'm far from an expert, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the incantations were real phrases in some Celtic language, thus positioning ancient pagan culture as the source of destabilizing magical influences and secular modernity (disentangled from any hint of Christianization) as the source of order and civilization.