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Paganism

 
Dictionary: Pa·gan·ism
Home > Library > Literature & Language > Webster 1913

n. (-ĭz'm)

[L. paganismus: cf. F. paganisme. See Pagan, and cf. Painim.]
The state of being pagan; pagan characteristics; esp., the worship of idols or false gods, or the system of religious opinions and worship maintained by pagans; heathenism.

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British History: paganism
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In the late Roman world a paganus was a ‘rustic’, and the word's shift to mean ‘non-Christian’ reflects a period when Christianity had spread among the upper classes and within towns, but not to the rural peasantry. Pagans need not share any common ground, but in Britain the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings recognized the same major gods and goddesses, but with slight variations in name (e.g. Woden/Odin), and although the native British had different deities these had responsibility for similar aspects of life such as warfare and fertility. The Romans had no trouble in assimilating the deities of either group with their own pantheon.

One should not envisage either Celtic or Germanic paganism as having structures or doctrines comparable to those of the Christian church. The building of temples and existence of a professional class of priests seems to have been more a feature of Celtic than Germanic practice. What may have mattered far more to the majority of people were localized guardian spirits who might be honoured at natural sites such as a spring, a grove of trees, or a hilltop.

Christianity saw off the major pantheons of gods and goddesses without too much difficulty and major festivals of the pagan year such as midwinter could be replaced with appropriate Christian celebrations like Christmas. What was harder to eradicate was the attachment to local holy places, though healing springs, for instance, were sometimes absorbed into local saints' cults.

English Folklore: paganism
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The term (with its synonym ‘heathenism’) for any religion where several gods and goddesses are worshipped; its relationship to folklore has long been debated, and is central to most origin theories.

In England, the first people to discuss folklore from the outside (as opposed to participating in it) were Elizabethan Protestants, who used it as a weapon in their campaign to identify Catholicism with paganism. They sought out every possible similarity between medieval customs and rituals and those of the only two pagan cultures they knew about: Old Testament Gentiles, and classical Greeks and Romans. This was the argument of Philip Stubbes's The Anatomie of Abuses (1583), with its famous diatribe against the maypole as a ‘stinking idol’; it was taken up by antiquarians such as the Revd Henry Bourne, whose Antiquitates Vulgares (1725) attacks popular customs and beliefs as coming from Pagan Rome via Papist Rome. Even Aubrey, who liked old ways, held the same theory. In his significantly titled Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme (1686) he argues that ceremonies and beliefs were ‘imbibed’ by the ancient Britons from the Romans, and survived wherever ‘the Inundation of the Goths’ (i.e. Anglo-Saxons) did not penetrate (Aubrey, 1686/1880: 55).

Several generations of writers referred back to Flora, Ceres, or the Saturnalia, to explain English festivals. Then 19th-century scholars showed that early Germanic and Celtic peoples had had myths and rituals of their own, independent from Rome, supplying closer precedents for English traditions. Claims for pre-Christian origins have always had great appeal among the general public, if only for the glamour antiquity confers; currently they are more popular than ever, for pagan beliefs (especially Celtic ones) are seen by many as admirable, and Christian tradition as repressive and dull.

However, there is an important distinction between showing that a custom or belief is older than Christianity, and arguing that when it is found among Christians it means paganism is still alive. Some aspects of the supernatural (e.g. fear of ghosts and witchcraft, belief in dreams) are so commonplace that they can occur in virtually any period, including our own, and do not correlate with one religion rather than another. The same is true of large categories of non-rational thought and action, e.g. those involving fate, luck, omens, and minor practices such as touching wood; Christians who think or act in this way rarely see it as inconsistent with faith. Calendar and life-cycle customs usually involve celebratory activities (e.g. dancing, special foods, drinking, disguise, bonfires) distinct from the religious side of the event (if any), but not felt to be in conflict with it. The appropriate word for these is ‘secular’, not ‘pagan’.

In England, a fair amount is known about Roman, Celtic, and Anglo-Saxon religions before the arrival of Christianity, but little about the conversion process itself, which has led modern advocates of paganism to claim that tolerance and continuity was the norm. For the first wave of Christianization, that which reached the Celtic Britons of the 4th century, the only evidence points the other way: when Celtic Christians reused pagan sites, they mutilated and dumped the statues of the gods (Merrifield, 1987: 96-106). The final conversion, that of the Anglo-Saxons, is described by Bede as a peaceful process, but evidence of continuity is again scanty. Despite the interpretation sometimes put on Pope Gregory's letter, no Saxon pagan shrine has yet been found underlying a church; though (very exceptionally) some Roman sacred sites were reused (Merrifield, 1987: 93-5). Coincidence of dates is even less significant. The dates of Christmas and Easter had been fixed long before Christianity reached Britain, and reflected Roman paganism and the Jewish Passover respectively, not the festivals of northern Europe; since every day in the Christian year celebrated at least one saint, every pagan festival necessarily coincided with a saint's day, for reasons quite unconnected with local cults.

The only significant documents are some law-codes of the 7th and 8th centuries forbidding sacrifices to Germanic deities, and some more in the early 11th century applying to the diocese of York, where Viking settlers had reintroduced them. The names of some gods appear in place-names, royal genealogies, and one or two charms, but their myths vanish; surviving hero-legends (Beowulf, Wayland) have no religious content.

There is thus no general framework to support claims that individual folklore items are pagan survivals, and each must be assessed on its own merits. For discussion of the main candidates, see ABBOTS BROMLEY, ANIMAL DISGUISE, CERNE ABBAS, FOLIATE HEADS, GREEN MAN, HALLOWEEN, HEADS, JACK-IN-THE-GREEN, MAY DAY, MAYPOLES, MUMMING, SHEILA-NA-GIGS, SKULLS, SWORD DANCES, UFFINGTON, WELLS, WILMINGTON, YULE

Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.

  • For discussion of British religions in relation to later folklore, see Hutton, 1991. For the religions individually, see Martin Henig, Religion in Roman Britain (1984)
  • G. A. Waite, Ritual and Religion Iron Age Britain (1985)
  • Miranda Green, The Gods of the Celts (1986)
  • Proinsas Mac-Cana, Celtic Mythology (1983)
  • Gale Owen, Rites and Religions of the Anglo-Saxons (1981)
  • David Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Paganism (1992)
Russian History Encyclopedia: Paganism
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Due to the concerted efforts of both the eastern and western churches, Christianity largely replaced Slavic paganism during the course of the ninth and tenth centuries. There are primarily three sources for information about Slavic paganism: written accounts, archaeological discoveries, and ethno-graphic evidence. As literacy was introduced to the East Slavs only with their conversion to Christianity in 988 C.E., and the written sources were most often compiled by Christian monks or missionaries, much of what is known about East Slavic paganism from written accounts is of questionable accuracy. The sources begin with the Byzantine historian Procopius (sixth century) and include Arab travel accounts, reports of Christian missionary activity, and references in the Primary Chronicle and the First Novgorod Chronicle. Archaeological evidence has provided some information on pagan temples, particularly among the West Slavs on the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. In addition, what may have been a temple to Perun, god of thunder, was excavated near Peryn, south of Novgorod in 1951, and several sites that were likely associated with cult practices have been found at Pskov, in the Smolensk region, and Belarus. Generally, however, archaeological sites are able to provide more information about material culture than about the spiritual life of a preliterate people. Ethnographic material was not systematically collected until the nineteenth century, which makes it difficult to separate genuine information from later accretions. One can summarize, based on evidence from all these sources, however, that early Slavic religion was animistic, in that it personified natural elements. It also deified heavenly bodies and recognized the existence of various spirits of the forest, water, and household. Ritual sacrifice was likely used to appease the pagan deities, and amulets were used to ward off evil. In accordance with widespread Indo-European practice, the early Slavs likely cremated their dead, but even before the Christian era burial was also practiced. Chernaya Mogila, a burial site in Chernigov that dates from the tenth century provides strong evidence for a belief in the afterlife, as three members of a princely family were interred with the horses, weapons, and utensils that they would need for existence in the next world.

Procopius makes reference to a Slavic god who is the ruler of everything, but evidence for a larger pantheon comes much later. The twelfth-century Primary Chronicle relates how Prince Vladimir set up idols in the hills of Kiev to Perun, "made of wood with a head of silver and a mustache of gold," as well as to Khors, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl, and Mokosh. In the entries for 907 and 971 C.E., the chronicle reports that the Rus swore by their gods Perun and Volos, the god of the flocks. Perun is associated with thunder and the oak tree, thought to be a favorite target of the lightning bolts unleashed by the thunder god. Much less is known about the other gods mentioned in the chronicle. Khors seems to refer to the sun and, as Jakobson points out, is closely connected with Dazhbog, the "giver of wealth," and Stribog, "the apportioner of wealth." Simargl appears to be a form of Simorg, the Iranian winged monster, who is at times depicted as a winged dog. The only female in the pantheon is Mokosh, whose name is probably derived from moist, and who is likely a personification of Moist Mother Earth. Some scholars view Mokosh as a remnant of the Great Goddess cult, which struggled against the patriarchal religion of the Varangians (Vikings). The god Volos, identified in the peace treaties as the god of cattle, may be connected with death and the underworld. The association with cattle possibly comes from the efforts of Christian writers to connect him with St. Blasius, a martyred Cappadocian bishop who became the protector of flocks. Although not listed in Vladimir's pantheon, the god Rod, with his consort Rozhanitsa, is mentioned in other East Slavic sources as a type of primordial progenitor.

After the conversion of Rus, elements of paganism continued in combination with Christian beliefs, a phenomenon that has been called "dvoev-erie" or "dual belief" in the Slavic tradition. References to pagan deities occasionally occur in Christian era texts, most notably as rhetorical ornamentation in such works as the Slovo o polku Igoreve. Syncretism is also apparent in the transformation of Perun into the Old Testament Elijah, who was taken to heaven in a fiery chariot.

Bibliography

Barford, Paul M. (2001). The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Gimbutas, Marija. (1971). The Slavs. London: Thames and Hudson.

Hubbs, Joanna. (1989). Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Jakobson, Roman. (1950) "Slavic Mythology." Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend. Vol. 2. New York: Funk and Wagnalls.

The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text. (1953). Ed. and tr. Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P.

Sherbowitz-Wetzor. Cambridge, MA: The Mediaeval Academy of America.

—DAVID K. PRESTEL

Wikipedia: Paganism
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"Pagan" and "Heathen" redirect here. For other uses, see Pagan (disambiguation) and Heathen (disambiguation).

Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller", "rustic")[1] is a word with several different meanings.

In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Other usages are:

  • Paganism may denote a narrow historic definition not including any of the current world religions. This may be restricted to local or rural currents, particularly those not organized as civil religions, or may focus on the ancient, largely extinct, polytheistic religious traditions of Greece, Rome, and other classical civilizations. Characteristic of pagan traditions is the absence of proselytism and the presence of a living mythology which explains religious practice.[2]

The term "pagan" is a Christian adaptation of the "gentile" of Judaism, and as such has an inherent Abrahamic bias, and pejorative connotations among Western monotheists,[3] comparable to heathen, and infidel also known as kafir (كافر) and mushrik 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; however others[who?] criticise the use of these terms, claiming that these are only aspects that different faiths may share and do not denote the religions themselves.

Since the later 20th century, "Pagan" or "Paganism" has become widely used as a self-designation by adherents of Neopaganism.[4] As such, various modern scholars have begun to apply the term to three separate groups of faiths: Historical Polytheism (such as Celtic polytheism and Norse paganism), Folk/ethnic/Indigenous religions (such as Chinese folk religion and African traditional religion), and Neo-paganism (such as Wicca and Germanic Neopaganism).

Contents

Etymology

Pagan

The term pagan is from the Latin paganus, an adjective originally meaning "rural", "rustic" or "of the country." As a noun, paganus was used to mean "country dweller, villager."[5] 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 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 closeness to nature of rural people, who may have been more resistant to the new ideas of Christianity than those who lived in major urban centers and were cut off from the cycles of nature and the forms of spirituality associated with them. 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") until a bit later on.
  • (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)

The post-classical Latin paganismus gave rise to both paganism and to its synonym paynimry.[6] Paynimry may be used of paganism, its practises, and pagans,[7] as well as for the domain or realm of pagans.[8]

"Peasant" is a cognate, via Old French paisent. [9]

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.[10]

Less than twenty years after the last vestiges of paganism were crushed with great severity by the emperor Theodosius I[11] 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.'[12]

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

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, although in modern times it is not always used as a pejorative. "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 "epicurian" 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."[13]

Christianity itself has been perceived at times as a form of paganism by followers of the other Abrahamic religions[14][15] because of, for example, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, the celebration of pagan feast days,[16] and other practices[17] – through a process described as "baptising"[18] or "christianization". Even between Christians there have been similar charges of paganism levelled, especially by Protestants,[19][20] towards the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches for their veneration of the saints and images. :)

Classifications

Pagan subdivisions coined by Isaac Bonewits[21]

Historical polytheism

Further information: Prehistoric religion and Polytheism
Bronze Age to Classical Antiquity
Late Antiquity to High Middle Ages (as opposed to Abrahamic and Indian religions)

Pagan survivals in folklore

Further information: Folklore
Perchten procession in Klagenfurt, Austria, which is a remnant of a practice performed by the historical pagans of the area. Many elements of modern European culture and folklore originate among pagan beliefs and practises.

In addition, folklore that is not any longer perceived as holding any religious significance can in some instances be traced to pre-Christian or pre-Islamic origins. In Europe, this is particularly the case with the various customs of Carnival or Fasnacht and the Yule traditions surrounding Santa Claus/Sinterklaas. By contrast, the Christmas tree in spite of frequent association with Thor's Oak cannot be shown to be an innovation predating the Early Modern period.

Early Modern period

Interest in pagan traditions was revived in the Renaissance, at first in Renaissance magic as a revival of Greco-Roman magic. In the 17th century, description of paganism turned from the theological aspect to the ethnological, and a religion began to be understood as part of the ethnic identity of a people, and the study of the religions of "primitive" peoples triggered questions as to the ultimate historical origin of religion. Thus, Nicolas Fabri de Peiresc saw the pagan religions of Africa of his day as relicts that were in principle capable of shedding light on the historical paganism of Classical Antiquity.[23]

Romanticism

Paganism re-surfaces as a topic of fascination in 18th to 19th century Romanticism, in particular in the context of the literary Celtic and Viking revivals, which portrayed historical Celtic and Germanic polytheists as noble savages.

The 19th century also saw much scholarly interest in the reconstruction of pagan mythology from folklore or fairy tales. This was notably attempted by the Brothers Grimm, especially Jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology, and Elias Lönnrot with the compilation of the Kalevala. The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence. Among those influenced were the Russian Alexander Afanasyev, the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, and the Englishman Joseph Jacobs.[24]

Romanticist interest in non-classical antiquity coincided with the rise of Romantic nationalism and the rise of the nation state in the context of the 1848 revolutions, leading to the creation of national epics and national myths for the various newly-formed states. Pagan or folkloristic topics were also common in the Musical nationalism of the period.

Neopaganism

Main article: Neopaganism
A ceremony at the annual Prometheia festival of the Greek polytheistic group Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes, June 2006.

Neopaganism includes reconstructed religions such as Hellenic polytheism, Celtic or Germanic reconstructionism as well as modern eclectic traditions such as Discordianism, or 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.

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%).[25]

In Iceland, the members of Ásatrúarfélagið account for 0.4% of the total population[26] which is just over a thousand people.

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.

The term has also been used more narrowly,[27][28][29] 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[30][31] (though by no means all)[32][33] Christians and other Westerners, contemporary paganism is a smaller and more marginal numerical phenomenon. According to Encyclopedia Britannica estimates (as of 2005), adherents of Chinese folk religion account for some 6.3% of world population, and adherents of tribal religions ("ethnoreligionists") for another 4.0%. The number of adherents of neopaganism is insignificant in comparison, amounting to 0.02% of world population at the most, or some 0.4% of the "ethnoreligious" population.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ MSN.com
  2. ^ "And it Harms No-one", A Pagan Manifesto, Janet Farrar & Gavin Bone, 1998.Utvinternet.com
  3. ^ "Pagan", Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition, 1911, retrieved 22 May 2007.Jrank.org
  4. ^ "A Basic Introduction to Paganism", BBC, retrieved 19 May 2007.
  5. ^ Word History
  6. ^ OED etymology for paynim: < Anglo-Norman paenisme, painisme, paienime, painnim, peinime, paenime, etc., and Old French paienime, paienisme heathen lands (c1150-74), heathen religion (1160) < post-classical Latin paganismus (see PAGANISM n.), probably influenced by Old French paien (see PAYEN n.).
  7. ^ OED entry for 'paynimry'.
  8. ^ Lexic.us
  9. ^ Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquity, 1897; "pagus"
  10. ^ Divers. Quaest. 83. Augustine makes clear that, in his time, paganus was the term in Vulgar Latin synonymous to educated gentilis "gentile".
  11. ^ "Theodosius I", The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912
  12. ^ "The City of God", Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2003.
  13. ^ 'Hymn to Proserpine'
  14. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
  15. ^ Shirk
  16. ^ Christianised calendar
  17. ^ Christianised rituals
  18. ^ The Pope, The Emperor and the Persian Leader
  19. ^ 'Philip Melanchthon 'Apologia Confessionis Augustanae'
  20. ^ Jean Seznec 'The Survival of the Pagan Gods'
  21. ^ "Defining Paganism: Paleo-, Meso-, and Neo-" (Version 2.5.1) 1979, 2007 c.e., Isaac Bonewits
  22. ^ Experiencefestival.com
  23. ^ "It would be a great pleasure to make the comparison with what survives to us of ancient paganism in our old books, in order to have better [grasped] their spirit." Peter N. Miller, History of Religion Becomes Ethnology: Some Evidence from Peiresc's Africa Journal of the History of Ideas 67.4 (2006) 675-696.Johns Hopkins University
  24. ^ Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 846, ISBN 0-393-97636-X
  25. ^ ARIS 2001 figures.
  26. ^ Statistics Iceland - Statistics >> Population >> Religious organisations, Statistics Iceland
  27. ^ Meanings of the terms Pagan and Paganism
  28. ^ Eisenstadt, S.N., 1983, Transcendental Visions -- Other-Worldliness -- and Its Transformations: Some More Comments on L. Dumont. Religion13:1-17, at p. 3.
  29. ^ 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).
  30. ^ Catholic Encyclopaedia (1917 edition) on paganism
  31. ^ Hindu rites at a famous Catholic shrine shocks many Catholics
  32. ^ David Scott, Christian Responses to Buddhism in Pre-Medieval Times, Numen, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jul., 1985), pp. 88-100
  33. ^ Audrius Beinorius, Buddhism in the Early European Imagination: A Historical Perspective, Acta Orientalia Vilnensia 6:2 (2005), pp. 7–22

Bibliography

External links

  • CUUPS - Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans
  • The Kith of Yggdrasil - UK-based Heathen website
  • Mything Links - A meta page about myths and mythology around the world
  • Pagan Federation - A UK-based organization promoting awareness and acceptance of Paganism in Europe and the world.
  • PFSA - The Pagan Federation of South Africa
  • The Noble Pagan - A US-based organization promoting tolerance and acceptance of Paganism and religious freedoms world-wide through education.
Search Wiktionary Look up pagan or heathen in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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Paganism (Historical Polytheism and Neopaganism)
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Translations: Paganism
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - hedenskab

Français (French)
n. - paganisme

Deutsch (German)
n. - Heidentum

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ειδωλολατρία, παγανισμός

Italiano (Italian)
paganesimo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - paganismo (m)

Русский (Russian)
язычество

Español (Spanish)
n. - paganismo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - hedendomen, hednisk religion

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
异教, 偶像崇拜, 异教信仰

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 異教, 偶像崇拜, 異教信仰

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 이교, 우상숭배

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 異教, 異教信仰, 異教徒であること

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮עבודת כוחות-הטבע, עבודת אלילים‬

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Dictionary. Webster 1913 Dictionary edited by Patrick J. Cassidy  Read more
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Russian History Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of Russian History. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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