(Redirected from Pagan)
'Paganism' (from
Latin ''paganus'', meaning "an old country dweller, rustic") is a term which, from a Western perspective, has come to connote a broad set of
spiritual or
cultic practices or beliefs of any
folk religion, and of historical and contemporary
polytheistic religions in particular.
The term can be defined broadly, to encompass the faith traditions outside the
Abrahamic monotheistic group of
Judaism,
Christianity, and
Islam. The group so defined includes the
Indian religions (such as
Hinduism,
Buddhism,
Jainism),
Native American religions and mythologies and
Shinto as well as non-Abrahamic
ethnic religions in general. More narrow definitions will not include any of the
world religions and restrict the term to local or rural currents not organized as
civil religions. Characteristic of Pagan traditions is the absence of
proselytism, and the presence of a living
mythology which
explains religious practice.
[1]
The term "Pagan" is a Christian adaptation of the "
Gentile" of Judaism, and as such
has an inherent Christian or Abrahamic bias, and
pejorative connotations among Westerners,
[2] comparable to heathen, and
infidel,
mushrik and
kafir (كافر) in Islam. For this reason,
ethnologists avoid the term "Paganism", with its uncertain and varied meanings, in referring to traditional or historic faiths, preferring more precise categories such as
polytheism,
shamanism,
pantheism, or
animism.
Since the later 20th century, however, the words "Pagan" or "Paganism" have become widely and openly used as a self-designation of adherents of
polytheistic reconstructionism and
neo-Paganism.
[3]
Etymology
Pagan
Terracotta figurine of a comic actor masked as a rustic, 2nd century BCE, found at
Canino
The term ''Pagan'' is from
Latin ''paganus'', an adjective originally meaning "
rural", "rustic" or "of the country." As a noun, ''paganus'' was used to mean "country dweller, villager." In colloquial use, it could mean much the same as calling someone today a 'country bumpkin' or a 'hillbilly'.
The semantic development of post-classical Latin ''paganus'' in the sense "non-Christian, heathen" is unclear. The dating of this sense is controversial, but the 4th century seems most plausible. An earlier example has been suggested in
Tertullian De Corona Militis xi, ''"Apud hunc [sc. Christum] tam miles est paganus fidelis quam paganus est miles infidelis,"'' but here the word ''paganus'' may be interpreted in the sense "
civilian" rather than "heathen". There are three main explanations of the development:
★ (i) The older sense of classical
Latin ''pāgānus'' is "of the country, rustic" (also as noun). It has been argued that the transferred use reflects the fact that the ancient
idolatry lingered on in the rural villages and hamlets after
Christianity had been generally accepted in the towns and cities of the
Roman Empire; cf. Orosius Histories 1. Prol. ''"Ex locorum agrestium compitis et pagis pagani vocantur."'' From its earliest beginnings,
Christianity spread much more quickly in major urban areas (like
Antioch,
Alexandria,
Corinth,
Rome) than in the countryside (in fact, the early church was almost entirely urban), and soon the word for "country dweller" became synonymous with someone who was "not a
Christian," giving rise to the modern meaning of "Pagan." This may, in part, have had to do with the conservative nature of rural people, who may have been more resistant to the new ideas of Christianity than those who lived in major urban centers. However, it may have also resulted from early Christian missionaries focusing their efforts within major population centers (e.g.,
St. Paul), rather than throughout an expansive, yet sparsely populated, countryside (hence, the Latin term suggesting "uneducated country folk").
★ (ii) The more common meaning of classical Latin ''pāgānus'' is "civilian, non-militant" (adjective and noun). Christians called themselves ''mīlitēs'', "enrolled soldiers" of
Christ, members of his
militant church, and applied to non-Christians the term applied by
soldiers to all who were "not enrolled in the army".
★ (iii) The sense "heathen" arose from an interpretation of ''paganus'' as denoting a person who was outside a particular group or
community, hence "not of the city" or "rural"; cf. Orosius Histories 1. Prol. ''"ui alieni a civitate dei..pagani vocantur."'' See C. Mohrmann, Vigiliae Christianae 6 (1952) 9ff.
--
Oxford English Dictionary, (online) 2nd Edition (1989)
"
Peasant" is a
cognate, via
Old French ''paisent''. (
Harry Thurston Peck, ''Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquity'', 1897; "pagus").
In their distant origins, these usages derived from ''pagus'', "province, countryside", cognate to Greek πάγος "rocky hill", and, even earlier, "something stuck in the ground", as a landmark: the
Proto-Indo-European root ''
★ pag-'' means "fixed" and is also the source of the words ''page'', ''
pale'' (stake), and ''pole'', as well as ''pact'' and ''peace''.
While ''pagan'' is attested in English from the 14th century, there is no evidence that the term ''paganism'' was in use in English before the 17th century. The
''OED'' instances
Edward Gibbon's
''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' (1776): "The divisions of Christianity suspended the ruin of paganism." The term was not a neologism, however, as ''paganismus'' was already used by
Augustine.
Less than twenty years after the last vestiges of paganism were crushed with great severity by the emperor Theodosius I
[4] Rome was seized by
Alaric in 410. This led to murmuring that the gods of paganism had taken greater care of the city than that of the Christian God, inspiring
St Augustine to write ''
The City of God'', alternative title "''De Civitate Dei contra Paganos'': The City of God against the Pagans", in which he claimed that whilst the great 'city of Man' had fallen, Christians were ultimately citizens of the 'city of God.'
[5]
Heathen
''Heathen'' is from
Old English ''hæðen'' "not Christian or Jewish", (c.f.
Old Norse ''heiðinn''). Historically, the term was probably influenced by
Gothic ''haiþi'' "dwelling on the
heath", appearing as ''haiþno'' in
Ulfilas' bible as "gentile woman," (translating the
"Hellene" in Mark 7:26). This translation probably influenced by Latin ''paganus'', "country dweller", or it was chosen because of its similarity to the Greek
''ethne'', "
gentile". It has even been suggested that Gothic ''haiþi'' is not related to "heath" at all, but rather a loan from
Armenian ''hethanos'', itself loaned from Greek ''ethnos''.
Terminology
Common word usage
Both "Pagan" and "heathen" have historically been used as a
pejorative by adherents of monotheistic religions (such as
Judaism,
Christianity and
Islam) to indicate a disbeliever in their religion. "Paganism" is also sometimes used to mean the ''lack'' of (an accepted monotheistic) religion, and therefore sometimes means essentially the same as ''
atheism''. "Paganism" frequently refers to the religions of
classical antiquity, most notably
Greek mythology or
Roman religion, and can be used neutrally or admiringly by those who refer to those complexes of belief. However, until the rise of
Romanticism and the general acceptance of
freedom of religion in
Western civilization, "Paganism" was almost always used disparagingly of
heterodox beliefs falling outside the established political framework of the Christian Church.
"Pagan" came to be equated with a Christianized sense of "
epicurean" to signify a person who is sensual, materialistic, self-indulgent, unconcerned with the future and uninterested in sophisticated religion. The word was usually used in this worldly and stereotypical sense, particularly among those who were drawing attention to what they perceived as being the limitations of Paganism, for example, as when
G. K. Chesterton wrote: "The pagan set out, with admirable sense, to enjoy himself. By the end of his civilization he had discovered that a man cannot enjoy himself and continue to enjoy anything else." In sharp contrast
Swinburne the poet would comment on this same theme: "Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath;
We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death."
[6]
Christianity itself has been perceived at times as a form of paganism by followers of the other Abrahamic religions
[7][8]because of, for example, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, the celebration of pagan feast days
[9], and other practices
[10] – through a process described as "baptising"
[11]or "
christianization". Even between Christians there have been similar charges of paganism levelled, especially by Protestants
[12],
[13], towards the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches for their
veneration of the saints and images.
Heathenry
"Heathen" (
Old English ''hæðen'') is a translation of ''paganus''. The
Germanic tribes were distributed over Eastern and Central Europe by the 5th century, and their
dialects ceased to be mutually intelligible from around that time.
Christianization of the Germanic peoples took place from the 4th (
Goths) to the 6th (
Anglo-Saxons,
Alamanni) or 8th (
Saxons) centuries on the continent, and from the 9th to 12th centuries in Iceland and Scandinavia.
Pagan classifications
Pagan subdivisions coined by
Isaac Bonewits [5]
★ Paleo-Paganism: A
retronym coined to contrast with "neopaganism", denoting a pagan culture that has not been disrupted by other cultures. The term applies to
Hinduism,
Shinto, pre-Migration period
Germanic paganism as described by
Tacitus,
Celtic Polytheism as described by
Julius Caesar, and the
Greek and
Roman religion.
★ Meso-Paganism: A group, which is, or has been, significantly influenced by monotheistic, dualistic, or nontheistic worldviews, but has been able to maintain an independence of religious practices. This group includes aboriginal Americans as well as Australian aboriginals,
Viking Age Norse paganism. Influences include:
Freemasonry,
Rosicrucianism,
Theosophy,
Spiritualism, as well as
Sikhism, and the many Afro-Diasporic faiths like
Haitian Vodou, and
Santería.
★
Neo-Paganism: A movement by modern people to reconnect with nature, pre-Christian religions, or other nature-based spiritual paths. This definition may include anything on a sliding scale from
reconstructionist to
New Age and non-reconstructionist groups such as
Neo-Druidism and
Wicca.
Historical polytheism
Bronze Age to Classical Antiquity (as opposed to Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Indian religions)
★
Religions of the Ancient Near East
★
★
Ancient Egyptian religion
★
★
Ancient Semitic religion
★ reconstructed
Proto-Indo-European religion
★ Graeco-Roman
★
★
Ancient Greek religion
★
★
Ancient Roman religion
★
★
Hellenistic religion
★
★
Roman imperial cult
★
★
Mystery religion
★
Celtic polytheism
Late Antiquity to High Middle Ages (as opposed to Abrahamic and Indian religions)
★
Germanic paganism
★
Slavic paganism
★
Baltic paganism
★
Finnish paganism
Contemporary ethnic religion
There are many surviving traditions of
ethnic religion. Organized ethnic religions that achieved the status of a
civil religion are
Shinto, tied to
Japanese identity, and
Judaism, tied to
Jewish identity. In
nationalist definitions,
Hinduism may be tied to
Indian identity.
Uninstitutionalized
folk religion is found mainly in rural and sparsely populated areas. These include
Animism,
ancestor worship and
Shamanism of
Asia,
Africa, the
Americas, as well as
Papua and other
Pacific islands.
Chinese folk religion is an umbrella term for uninstitutionalized folk traditions under a secular regime.
All
world religions, however, also include folk religious aspects, as opposed to their theological or philosophical aspects, see
folk Christianity, or local institutions of revealed religions may become strongly tied to ethnic identity, e.g.
Yazdânism (Kurdish faiths descending from
Zoroastrianism),
Tibetan Buddhism, or various Christian
national churches such as the
Armenian Apostolic Church, the various
Syriac churches, and the various branches of the Orthodox Church, e.g.,
Anglican Orthodox,
Greek Orthodox,
Russian Orthodox and other non-Roman churches.
Africa
Main articles: African traditional religion
During the expansion of the
Sokoto Caliphate in West Africa, Islamic
Fulbe (Fula) labelled their non-Muslim neighbours, such as this Kapsiki
diviner, ''
Kirdi'', or "pagans".
Eurasia
Eurasian ethnic religions became largely extinct in the course of the
Middle Ages, first with
Christianization in the West and the
spread of Buddhism in the East, and then with the
Islamic conquests of Persia, Central and South Asia. A notable survival of pre-Islamic traditions are the people of
Kafirstan, now shrunk tothe
Kalasha people, inhabiting three valleys in the
NWFP,
Pakistan.
The 2002 census of the
Russian Federation reports 123,423 people (0.23% of the population) as belonging to ethnic groups predominantly adhering to "traditional beliefs", mostly in
Siberia and the
Russian Far East.
In Japan, there is the
Ryukyuan religion.
Central America
Mayan priests dancing around fire at ceremony
In spite of five centuries of persecution
Mayan paganism is alive and well in Guatemala, and is experiencing a resurgence of interest among young Mayans. Recent peace accords signed by the Guatemalan government have provided funds to teach Mayan language and traditional religion in rural schools.
Pagan revivals and new religious movements
Neo-paganism
Main articles: Neo-paganism
Neopaganism includes
reconstructed religions such as
Hellenic,
Celtic or
Germanic reconstructionism as well as modern eclectic traditions such as
Discordianism, and
Wicca and its many offshoots.
Many of the "revivals", Wicca and Neo-druidism in particular, have their roots in 19th century
Romanticism and retain noticeable elements of
occultism or
theosophy that were current then, setting them apart from historical rural (''paganus'') folk religion. The ''
Íslenska Ásatrúarfélagið'' is a notable exception in that it was derived more or less directly from remnants in rural folklore.
Neopaganism in the United States accounts for roughly a third of all neopagans worldwide, and for some 0.2% of US population, figuring as the sixth largest non-Christian denomination in the US, after
Judaism (1.4%),
Islam (0.6%),
Buddhism (0.5%),
Hinduism (0.3%) and
Unitarian Universalism (0.3%).
[14]
Modern nature religion
Many current Pagans in industrial societies base their beliefs and practices on a connection to Nature, and a divinity within all living things, but this may not hold true for all forms of Paganism, past or present. Some believe that there are many deities, while some believe that the combined subconscious spirit of all living things forms the universal deity. Ancient Greek Paganism, which tended in many cases to be a deification of the local deity, as
Athena in
Athens, saw each local emanation as an aspect of an Olympian deity during the Classical period and then after
Alexander to syncretize the deity with the political process, with "state divinities" increasingly assigned to various localities, as
Roma personified Rome. Many ancient regimes would claim to be the representative on
earth of these
gods, and would depend on more or less elaborate bureaucracies of state-supported priests and scribes to lend public support to their claims.
In one well-established sense, Paganism is the belief in any non-
monotheistic religion, which would mean that the Pythagoreans of ancient
Greece would not be considered Pagan in that sense, since they were monotheist, but not in the Abrahamic tradition. In an extreme sense, and like the pejorative sense below, any belief, ritual or pastime not sanctioned by a religion accepted as
orthodox by those doing the describing, such as
Burning Man,
Halloween, or even
Christmas, can be described as "pagan" by the person or people who object to them and the individuals who choose to claim this title.
Demographics
Paganism has been previously defined broadly, to encompass many or most of the faith traditions outside the
Abrahamic monotheistic group of
Judaism,
Christianity, and
Islam. If the
Indian religions are included, then 50 percent of the worlds religions would be considered pagan.
[15].
The term has also been used more narrowly,
[16][17][18] however, to refer only to religions outside the very large group of so-called
Axial Age faiths that encompass both the Abrahamic religions and the chief Indian religions. Under this narrower definition, which differs from that historically used by many
[19][20] (though by no means all
[21][22]) Christians and other Westerners, contemporary paganism is a relatively smaller and more marginal numerical phenomenon.
Notes and References
1. "And it Harms No-one", A Pagan Manifesto, Janet Farrar & Gavin Bone, 1998.[1]
2. "Pagan", Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition, 1911, retrieved 22 May 2007.[2]
3. "A Basic Introduction to Paganism", BBC, retrieved 19 May 2007.[3]
4. "Theodosius I", The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912.[4]
5. "The City of God", Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2003.
6. 'Hymn to Proserpine'
7. Jewish Encyclopedia
8. Shirk
9. Christianised calendar
10. Christianised rituals
11. The Pope, The Emperor and the Persian Leader
12. 'Philip Melanchthon 'Apologia Confessionis Augustanae'
13. Jean Seznec 'The Survival of the Pagan Gods'
14. ARIS 2001 figures.
15. 1998 Cambridge Fact Finder
16. http://www.religioustolerance.org/paganism.htm
17. Eisenstadt, S.N., 1983, Transcendental Visions -- Other-Worldliness -- and Its Transformations: Some More Comments on L. Dumont. ''Religion''13:1-17, at p. 3.
18. Michael York, Paganism as Root-Religion, The Pomegranate, 6:1 (2004), pp. 11-18 (distinguishing the main streams of developed religion as gnostic, dharmic, Abrahamic and pagan).
19. Catholic Encyclopaedia (1917 edition) on Paganism
20. Hindu rites at a famous Catholic shrine shocks many Catholics
21. David Scott, Christian Responses to Buddhism in Pre-Medieval Times, Numen, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jul., 1985), pp. 88-100
22. Audrius Beinorius, Buddhism in the Early European Imagination: A Historical Perspective, ACTA ORIENTALIA VILNENSIA 6:2 (2005), pp. 7–22
Literature
★ Michael York, ''Pagan Theology: Paganism as a World Religion'' NYU Press (2003), ISBN 0814797083.
See also
★
Animism
★
Druidry
★
Folk religion
★
Idolatry
★
Myth and ritual
★
Mythology
★
Neo-druidism
★
Neopaganism
★
★
Pagan activism
★
★
List of Pagans
★
Orthopraxy
★
Polytheism
★
Pagan, Myanmar
★
Religion and mythology
★
Shamanism
★
Shirk (idolatry)
★
Virtuous paganism
External links
★
Surviving in church as a Pagan article supporting the claim that paganism influenced Christianity
★
Religious Tolerance: Parallels between Christianity and ancient Pagan religions - article pointing out the similarities
★
BBC - Religion & Ethics - Paganism overview with many articles and links
★
BBC - The Revival of Paganism short report on modern Paganism
★ James J. O'Donnell, "
The Demise of Paganism," ''Traditio''), 45-88
★
House of Netjer Living the Religion of Ancient Egypt
★
The Pagan Federation International
★
The Pagan Federation UK
★
The Pagan Pride Project
★
Pagan Network
★
Pagan Association UK
★
Religious Tolerance (with particular reference to paganism)
★
Chakana: NGO & knowledge centre about Indians of the highlands (with investigation about animist/pagan beliefs)
★
Speaking4Earth: action site about indigenous issues (fighting for their pagan rights)
★
Dutch Centre for Indigenous Peoples
★
UK pagan resources
★
What is Paganism
★
PanFest Pagan Festival in Alberta, Canada
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