Paganism
Paganism is a word with a long and loaded history. The Latin paganus meant a country dweller. It became a religious label only in the 4th century, after the Roman world turned Christian.[1] Dictionary definitions are still mostly negative, describing pagans as non-Christians, heathens or idol-worshippers.[1]
Christian authorities used the word to run down older religions. Historians also speak of "dual faith", in which people who converted to Christianity kept up older forms of worship alongside it.[2]
Today the word is also used by followers of modern pagan religions to describe themselves, though not all do: some Druids prefer "Old Religion", and some Wiccans do not call themselves Pagan.[3][4]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Strmiska, Michael F., ed. (2005). Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. pp. 4–7.
- ↑ Strmiska, Michael F., ed. (2005). Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. p. 6.
- ↑ Strmiska, Michael F., ed. (2005). Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. p. 88.
- ↑ Pearson, Joanne (2007). "Introduction". Wicca and the Christian Heritage: Ritual, Sex and Magic. Routledge.