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[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Pagan-religion.jpg|right|frame]]
[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Pagan-religion.jpg|right|frame]]
==Noun==
==Origin==
*1. a. A [[person]] not subscribing to any major or recognized [[religion]], esp. the dominant [[religion]] of a particular [[society]]; spec. a heathen, a non-Christian, esp. considered as savage, uncivilized, etc. Now chiefly hist.
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English], from Late Latin ''paganus'', from [[Latin]], civilian, country dweller, from ''pagus'' country district; akin to Latin ''pangere'' to fix
:b. A follower of a pantheistic or [[nature]]-[[worship]]ping [[religion]]; esp. a neopagan.
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_century 14th Century]
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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_century 4th century] seems most plausible. An earlier example has been suggested in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertullian Tertullian] ''De Corona Militis'' xi, "Apud hunc [sc. Christum] tam miles est paganus fidelis quam paganus est miles fidelis," but here the word ''paganus'' is generally [[interpreted]] as "civilian," since the alternative would be that Tertullian had written of "In Christ... the faithful pagan." 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 said 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 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire 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, Carthage, Corinth, [[Rome]]) than in the countryside (in [[fact]], the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Christianity 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.
==Definitions==
*1: heathen 1; especially : a follower of a [[polytheistic]] religion (as in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome ancient Rome])
*2: one who has little or no [[religion]] and who delights in sensual [[pleasures]] and material [[goods]] : an irreligious or [[hedonistic]] person
==Description==
'''Paganism''' (from Latin ''paganus'', [[meaning]] "country dweller", "rustic") is a blanket term typically used to refer to religious [[traditions]] which are [[polytheistic]] or [[indigenous]].
It is primarily used in a historical context, Greco-Roman [[polytheism]] as well as the polytheistic [[traditions]] of Europe and North Africa before Christianization. In a wider sense, extended to contemporary religions, it includes most of the Eastern religions and the [[indigenous]] [[traditions]] of the Americas, Central Asia, Australia and Africa; as well as non-Abrahamic [[folk]] religion 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 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_religion civil religions]. Characteristic of Pagan traditions is the absence of [[proselytism]] and the presence of a living [[mythology]], which informs religious [[practice]].
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnologists Ethnologists] often avoid the term "pagan," with its uncertain and varied [[meanings]], in referring to traditional or historic [[faiths]], preferring more precise categories such as [[polytheism]], [[shamanism]], [[pantheism]], or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism animism].
[[Category: General Reference]]
In the late [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century 20th century], "Paganism", or more correctly "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neopaganism Neopaganism]", became widely used in reference to adherents of various [[new religious movement]] including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca Wicca]. As such, various modern scholars have begun to apply the term to three groups of separate faiths: Historical Polytheism (such as Celtic polytheism,Kemetism,Norse Paganism, the Cultus Deorum Romanorum and Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism also called Hellenismos), Folk/ethnic/Indigenous religions (such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_folk_religion Chinese folk religion] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_traditional_religion African traditional religion]), and Neopaganism (such as Wicca, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Druidism Neo-Druidism]).
[[Category: Religion]]