| Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "an
| |
| | of Christ, members of his militant
|
| old country dweller, rustic") is a term
| |
| | church, and applied to non-Christians the
|
| which, from a Western perspective, has
| |
| | term applied by soldiers to all who were
|
| come to connote a broad set of spiritual
| |
| | "not enrolled in the army".
|
| or cultic practices or beliefs of any
| |
| | (iii) The sense "heathen" arose from an
|
| folk religion, and of historical and
| |
| | interpretation of paganus as denoting a
|
| contemporary polytheism religions in
| |
| | person who was outside a particular group
|
| particular.
| |
| | or community, hence "not of the city" or
|
| The term can be defined broadly, to
| |
| | "rural"; cf. Orosius Histories 1. Prol.
|
| encompass the faith traditions outside
| |
| | "ui alieni a civitate dei..pagani
|
| the Abrahamic monotheistic group of
| |
| | vocantur." See C. Mohrmann, Vigiliae
|
| Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The
| |
| | Christianae 6 (1952) 9ff.
|
| group so defined includes the Dharmic
| |
| | -- Oxford English Dictionary, (online)
|
| religions, Native American religions and
| |
| | 2nd Edition (1989)
|
| mythologies and Shinto as well as
| |
| | "Peasant" is a cognate, via Old French
|
| non-Abrahamic ethnic religions in
| |
| | paisent. (Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's
|
| general. More narrow definitions will not
| |
| | Dictionary of Classical Antiquity, 1897;
|
| include any of the world religions and
| |
| | "pagus").
|
| restrict the term to local or rural
| |
| | In their distant origins, these usages
|
| currents not organized as civil
| |
| | derived from pagus, "province,
|
| religions. Characteristic of Pagan
| |
| | countryside", cognate to Greek p????
|
| traditions is the absence of proselytism,
| |
| | "rocky hill", and, even earlier,
|
| and the presence of a living mythology
| |
| | "something stuck in the ground", as a
|
| which explains religious practice.
| |
| | landmark: the Proto-Indo-European root
|
| The term "Pagan" is a Christian
| |
| | *pag- means "fixed" and is also the
|
| adaptation of the "Gentile" of Judaism,
| |
| | source of the words "page", "pale"
|
| and as such has an inherent Christian or
| |
| | (stake), and "pole", as well as "pact"
|
| Abrahamic bias, and pejorative
| |
| | and "peace".
|
| connotations among Westerners, comparable
| |
| | Like its approximate synonym heathen (see
|
| to heathen, and infidel, mushrik and
| |
| | below), it was adopted by Middle
|
| kafir in Islam. For this reason,
| |
| | English-speaking Christians as a slur to
|
| ethnologists avoid the term "Paganism",
| |
| | refer to those too rustic to embrace
|
| with its uncertain and varied meanings,
| |
| | Christianity. Additionally, some rural
|
| in referring to traditional or historic
| |
| | parts of Europe were the most resistant
|
| faiths, preferring more precise
| |
| | to forced conversion, resisting Christian
|
| categories such as polytheism, shamanism,
| |
| | Europe and holding to their religious
|
| pantheism, or animism.
| |
| | beliefs, amplifying the medieval use of
|
| Since the later 20th century, however,
| |
| | the term.
|
| the words "Pagan" or "Paganism" have
| |
| | As mentioned previously, the
|
| become widely and openly used as a
| |
| | post-Christian usage of "Pagan" came to
|
| self-designation of adherents of
| |
| | mean rural people holding to
|
| polytheistic reconstructionism and
| |
| | pre-Christian polytheistic beliefs in the
|
| neo-Paganism.
| |
| | face of the new, and predominantly urban,
|
| Etymology
| |
| | Christianized Roman society. Conversely,
|
| Pagan
| |
| | it is now the rural peoples of Western
|
| The term Pagan is from Latin paganus, an
| |
| | culture who are more typically aligned
|
| adjective originally meaning "rural",
| |
| | with Christian beliefs (e.g., the bible
|
| "rustic" or "of the country." As a noun,
| |
| | belt or red states within the U.S.),
|
| paganus was used to mean "country
| |
| | whereas urban areas are now more
|
| dweller, villager." In colloquial use, it
| |
| | secularized.
|
| could mean much the same as calling
| |
| | Neoplatonists in the Early Christian
|
| someone today a 'bumpkin' or a
| |
| | church attempted to Christianize the
|
| 'hillbilly'. Some believe Paganus was
| |
| | values of sophisticated Pagans such as
|
| almost exclusively a derogatory term. (It
| |
| | Plato and Virgil. This had some influence
|
| is from this derivation of "villager"
| |
| | among the literate class, but did little
|
| which we have the word "villain", which
| |
| | to counter the more general prejudice
|
| the expanding Christians called the
| |
| | expressed in "Pagan".
|
| Pagans of Northern Europe/Scandinavia).
| |
| | While Pagan is attested in English from
|
| The semantic development of
| |
| | the 14th century, there is no evidence
|
| post-classical Latin paganus in the sense
| |
| | that the term Paganism was in use in
|
| "non-Christian, heathen" is unclear. The
| |
| | English before the 17th century. The OED
|
| dating of this sense is controversial,
| |
| | instances Edward Gibbon's Decline and
|
| but the 4th century seems most plausible.
| |
| | Fall of the Roman Empire (1776): "The
|
| An earlier example has been suggested in
| |
| | divisions of Christianity suspended the
|
| Tertullian De Corona Militis xi, "Apud
| |
| | ruin of paganism." The term was not a
|
| hunc [sc. Christum] tam miles est paganus
| |
| | neologism, however, as paganismus was
|
| fidelis quam paganus est miles
| |
| | already used by Augustine.
|
| infidelis," but here the word paganus may
| |
| | Less than twenty years after the last
|
| be interpreted in the sense "civilian"
| |
| | vestiges of paganism were crushed with
|
| rather than "heathen". There are three
| |
| | great severity by the emperor Theodosius
|
| main explanations of the development:
| |
| | I[2] Rome was seized by Alaric in 410.
|
| (i) The older sense of classical Latin
| |
| | This led to murmuring that the gods of
|
| paganus is "of the country, rustic" (also
| |
| | paganism had taken greater care of the
|
| as noun). It has been argued that the
| |
| | city than that of the christian god,
|
| transferred use reflects the fact that
| |
| | inspiring St Augustine to write The City
|
| the ancient idolatry lingered on in the
| |
| | of God, alternative title" De Civitate
|
| rural villages and hamlets after
| |
| | Dei contra Paganos: The City of God
|
| Christianity had been generally accepted
| |
| | against the Pagans", in which he claimed
|
| in the towns and cities of the Roman
| |
| | that whilst the great 'city of man' had
|
| Empire; cf. Orosius Histories 1. Prol.
| |
| | fallen, christians were ultimately
|
| "Ex locorum agrestium compitis et pagis
| |
| | citizens of the 'city of god.'[3]
|
| pagani vocantur." From its earliest
| |
| | Classically Catholic Slavic peoples use
|
| beginnings, Christianity spread much more
| |
| | the word "Pagan" as an insult in their
|
| quickly in major urban areas (like
| |
| | language; translating roughly as a
|
| Antioch, Alexandria, Corinth, Rome) than
| |
| | "conniving brute." The etymology of this
|
| in the countryside (in fact, the early
| |
| | meaning lies in the fact that after their
|
| church was almost entirely urban), and
| |
| | forced conversion by Western Christians,
|
| soon the word for "country dweller"
| |
| | much of the Slavic lands took a dim view
|
| became synonymous with someone who was
| |
| | of the remaining non-Christians in their
|
| "not a Christian," giving rise to the
| |
| | midsts.
|
| modern meaning of "Pagan." This may, in
| |
| | Heathen
|
| part, have had to do with the
| |
| | Heathen is from Old English hæðen "not
|
| conservative nature of rural people, who
| |
| | Christian or Jewish", (c.f. Old Norse
|
| may have been more resistant to the new
| |
| | heiðinn). Historically, the term was
|
| ideas of Christianity than those who
| |
| | probably influenced by Gothic haiþi
|
| lived in major urban centers. However, it
| |
| | "dwelling on the heath", appearing as
|
| may have also resulted from early
| |
| | haiþno in Ulfilas' bible as "gentile
|
| Christian missionaries focusing their
| |
| | woman," (translating the Greek in Mark
|
| efforts within major population centers
| |
| | 7:26). This translation probably
|
| (e.g., St. Paul), rather than throughout
| |
| | influenced by Latin paganus, "country
|
| an expansive, yet sparsely populated,
| |
| | dweller", or it was chosen because of its
|
| countryside (hence, the Latin term
| |
| | similarity to the Greek ethne, "gentile".
|
| suggesting "uneducated country folk").
| |
| | It has even been suggested that Gothic
|
| (ii) The more common meaning of classical
| |
| | haiþi is not related to "heath" at all,
|
| Latin paganus is "civilian, non-militant"
| |
| | but rather a loan from Armenian hethanos,
|
| (adjective and noun). Christians called
| |
| | itself loaned from Greek ethnos.
|
| themselves milites, "enrolled soldiers"
| |
| |
|
