What is paganism

Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "an old				and applied to non-Christians the term applied by
country dweller, rustic") is a term which, from a				soldiers to all who were "not enrolled in the army".
Western perspective, has come to connote a				(iii) The sense "heathen" arose from an
broad set of spiritual or cultic practices or beliefs				interpretation of paganus as denoting a person
of any folk religion, and of historical and				who was outside a particular group or community,
contemporary polytheism religions in particular.				hence "not of the city" or "rural"; cf. Orosius
The term can be defined broadly, to encompass				Histories 1. Prol. "ui alieni a civitate dei..pagani
the faith traditions outside the Abrahamic				vocantur." See C. Mohrmann, Vigiliae Christianae 6
monotheistic group of Judaism, Christianity, and				(1952) 9ff.
Islam. The group so defined includes the Dharmic				-- Oxford English Dictionary, (online) 2nd Edition
religions, Native American religions and mythologies				(1989)
and Shinto as well as non-Abrahamic ethnic				"Peasant" is a cognate, via Old French paisent.
religions in general. More narrow definitions will not				(Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of
include any of the world religions and restrict the				Classical Antiquity, 1897; "pagus").
term to local or rural currents not organized as				In their distant origins, these usages derived from
civil religions. Characteristic of Pagan traditions is				pagus, "province, countryside", cognate to Greek
the absence of proselytism, and the presence of				p???? "rocky hill", and, even earlier, "something
a living mythology which explains religious practice.				stuck in the ground", as a landmark: the
The term "Pagan" is a Christian adaptation of the				Proto-Indo-European root *pag- means "fixed" and
"Gentile" of Judaism, and as such has an inherent				is also the source of the words "page", "pale"
Christian or Abrahamic bias, and pejorative				(stake), and "pole", as well as "pact" and "peace".
connotations among Westerners, comparable to				Like its approximate synonym heathen (see
heathen, and infidel, mushrik and kafir in Islam. For				below), it was adopted by Middle English-speaking
this reason, ethnologists avoid the term				Christians as a slur to refer to those too rustic to
"Paganism", with its uncertain and varied meanings,				embrace Christianity. Additionally, some rural parts
in referring to traditional or historic faiths,				of Europe were the most resistant to forced
preferring more precise categories such as				conversion, resisting Christian Europe and holding
polytheism, shamanism, pantheism, or animism.				to their religious beliefs, amplifying the medieval
Since the later 20th century, however, the words				use of the term.
"Pagan" or "Paganism" have become widely and				As mentioned previously, the post-Christian usage
openly used as a self-designation of adherents of				of "Pagan" came to mean rural people holding to
polytheistic reconstructionism and neo-Paganism.				pre-Christian polytheistic beliefs in the face of the
Etymology				new, and predominantly urban, Christianized
Pagan				Roman society. Conversely, it is now the rural
The term Pagan is from Latin paganus, an				peoples of Western culture who are more
adjective originally meaning "rural", "rustic" or "of				typically aligned with Christian beliefs (e.g., the bible
the country." As a noun, paganus was used to				belt or red states within the U.S.), whereas urban
mean "country dweller, villager." In colloquial use, it				areas are now more secularized.
could mean much the same as calling someone				Neoplatonists in the Early Christian church
today a 'bumpkin' or a 'hillbilly'. Some believe				attempted to Christianize the values of
Paganus was almost exclusively a derogatory				sophisticated Pagans such as Plato and Virgil. This
term. (It is from this derivation of "villager" which				had some influence among the literate class, but
we have the word "villain", which the expanding				did little to counter the more general prejudice
Christians called the Pagans of Northern Europe				expressed in "Pagan".
Scandinavia).				While Pagan is attested in English from the 14th
The semantic development of post-classical Latin				century, there is no evidence that the term
paganus in the sense "non-Christian, heathen" is				Paganism was in use in English before the 17th
unclear. The dating of this sense is controversial,				century. The OED instances Edward Gibbon's
but the 4th century seems most plausible. An				Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776): "The
earlier example has been suggested in Tertullian				divisions of Christianity suspended the ruin of
De Corona Militis xi, "Apud hunc [sc. Christum] tam				paganism." The term was not a neologism,
miles est paganus fidelis quam paganus est miles				however, as paganismus was already used by
infidelis," but here the word paganus may be				Augustine.
interpreted in the sense "civilian" rather than				Less than twenty years after the last vestiges of
"heathen". There are three main explanations of				paganism were crushed with great severity by
the development:				the emperor Theodosius I[2] Rome was seized
(i) The older sense of classical Latin paganus is "of				by Alaric in 410. This led to murmuring that the
the country, rustic" (also as noun). It has been				gods of paganism had taken greater care of the
argued that the transferred use reflects the fact				city than that of the christian god, inspiring St
that the ancient idolatry lingered on in the rural				Augustine to write The City of God, alternative
villages and hamlets after Christianity had been				title" De Civitate Dei contra Paganos: The City of
generally accepted in the towns and cities of the				God against the Pagans", in which he claimed that
Roman Empire; cf. Orosius Histories 1. Prol. "Ex				whilst the great 'city of man' had fallen, christians
locorum agrestium compitis et pagis pagani				were ultimately citizens of the 'city of god.'[3]
vocantur." From its earliest beginnings, Christianity				Classically Catholic Slavic peoples use the word
spread much more quickly in major urban areas				"Pagan" as an insult in their language; translating
(like Antioch, Alexandria, Corinth, Rome) than in				roughly as a "conniving brute." The etymology of
the countryside (in fact, the early church was				this meaning lies in the fact that after their forced
almost entirely urban), and soon the word for				conversion by Western Christians, much of the
"country dweller" became synonymous with				Slavic lands took a dim view of the remaining
someone who was "not a Christian," giving rise to				non-Christians in their midsts.
the modern meaning of "Pagan." This may, in part,				Heathen
have had to do with the conservative nature of				Heathen is from Old English hÃ¦Ã°en "not
rural people, who may have been more resistant				Christian or Jewish", (c.f. Old Norse heiÃ°inn).
to the new ideas of Christianity than those who				Historically, the term was probably influenced by
lived in major urban centers. However, it may				Gothic haiÃ¾i "dwelling on the heath",
have also resulted from early Christian				appearing as haiÃ¾no in Ulfilas' bible as "gentile
missionaries focusing their efforts within major				woman," (translating the Greek in Mark 7:26). This
population centers (e.g., St. Paul), rather than				translation probably influenced by Latin paganus,
throughout an expansive, yet sparsely populated,				"country dweller", or it was chosen because of its
countryside (hence, the Latin term suggesting				similarity to the Greek ethne, "gentile". It has even
"uneducated country folk").				been suggested that Gothic haiÃ¾i is not
(ii) The more common meaning of classical Latin				related to "heath" at all, but rather a loan from
paganus is "civilian, non-militant" (adjective and				Armenian hethanos, itself loaned from Greek
noun). Christians called themselves milites, "enrolled				ethnos.
soldiers" of Christ, members of his militant church,

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What is paganism

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