Paganism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paganism is a broad group of indigenous and historical polytheistic religious traditions—primarily those of cultures known to
the classical world. In a wider sense, paganism has also been understood to
include any non-Abrahamic, folk, or ethnic religion.
Contemporary or modern paganism, also known as neopaganism, is a group of new religious movements influenced by, or claiming to be derived from, the various historical pagan
beliefs of pre-modern Europe.[1][2]
Nomenclature
and etymology
Hellene
In the Latin-speaking West of the newly Christianizing
Roman Empire, Greek became
associated with the traditional
polytheistic beliefs of Ancient Greece
and regarded as a foreign language (lingua peregrina).[3]
By the latter half of the 4th century in the Greek-speaking East, pagans
were—paradoxically—most commonly called Hellenes (Ἕλλην, lit.
"Greeks"). The word almost entirely ceased being used in a cultural
sense.[4][5]
It retained that meaning for roughly the first millennium of Christianity.
This was influenced by
Christianity's early membership, who were Jewish. Jews of
the time distinguished themselves from foreigners according to religious rather
than ethnocultural standards and early Jewish Christians would have done the
same. As Hellenic culture was the dominant pagan culture in the Roman east,
they called pagans Greek (Hellene). Christianity inherited Jewish
terminology for non-Jews and adapted it to refer to non-Christians they were in
contact with. This usage is recorded in the New Testament.
In the Pauline epistles, Hellene almost always juxtaposed to Hebrew
in disregard of actual ethnicities.[5]
Usage of Hellene as a
religious term was initially part of an exclusively Christians nomenclature,
but some pagans began defiantly calling themselves Hellenes. Other pagans even
preferred the narrowed meaning of the word—from a broad cultural sphere to a
more specific religious grouping. However, there were many Christians and
pagans alike who strongly objected to the evolution of the terminology. The
influential Archbishop
of Constantinople Gregory of Nazianzus, for example, took offence to imperial efforts to suppress
Hellenic culture (especially concerning spoken and written Greek) and openly
criticized the emperor.[4]
The growing religious stigmatization
of Hellenism had a chilling effect on Hellenic culture by the late 4th century.[4]
By late antiquity, however, it was
possible to speak Greek as a primary language while not conceiving of oneself a
"Hellene".[6]
The long-established use of Greek in and around the eastern Roman Empire a lingua franca
ironically allowed it to instead become central in enabling the spread of
Christianity—as indicated for example by the use of Greek for the Epistles of Paul.[7]
In the first half of the 5th century, Greek was the standard language in which
bishops communicated,[8] and the Acta Conciliorum ("Acts of the Church
Councils") were recorded originally in Greek and then translated into
other languages.[9]
Pagan
The adoption of paganus by
Latin Christians as an all-embracing, pejorative term for polytheists
represents an unforeseen and singularly long-lasting victory, within a
religious group, of a word of Latin slang originally devoid of religious
meaning. The evolution occurred only in the Latin west, and in connection with
the Latin church. Elsewhere, "Hellene" or "gentile" (ethnikos)
remained the word for "pagan"; and paganos continued as a
purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace.
The term pagan is from Late Latin
paganus,
revived during the Renaissance.
Itself deriving from classical Latin
pagus
which originally meant "region delimited by markers", paganus had also come to mean "of or relating to the
countryside", "country dweller", "villager"; by
extension, "rustic", "unlearned", "yokel",
"bumpkin"; in Roman military
jargon,
"non-combantant", "civilian", "unskilled
soldier". It is related to pangere ("to
fix", "to fasten") and ultimately comes from Proto-Indo-European *pag- ("to fix").[11]
Medieval writers often assumed paganus as a religious term
was a result of the conversion patterns during the Christianization
of Europe, where people in towns and cities
were converted more readily than those in remote regions, where old ways
lingered. However, this idea has multiple problems. First, the word's usage as
a reference to non-Christians pre-dates that period in history. Second,
paganism within the Roman Empire centred on cities. The concept of an urban
Christianity as opposed to a rural paganism would not have occurred to Romans
during Early Christianity. Third, unlike words such as rusticitas,
paganus had not yet fully acquired the meanings (of uncultured
backwardness) used to explain why it would have been applied to pagans.[12]
"Paganus" more likely acquired
its meaning in Christian nomenclature via Roman military jargon (see above).
Early Christians adopted military motifs and saw themselves as "Milites
Christi" ("soldiers of Christ").[11][12]
A good example of Christians still using paganus in a military context
rather than religious is in Tertullian's
De Corona Militis XI.V, where Christians are referred to as
"paganus" (civilian):[12]
"Paganus" acquired its
religious connotations by the mid-4th century.[12]
As early as the 5th century, paganos was metaphorically used to denote
persons outside the bounds of the Christian community. Following the sack of Rome to pagan Visigoths
just over fifteen years after the Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I,[15]
murmurs began to spread that the old gods had taken greater care of the city
than the Christian God. In response, Augustine of Hippo wrote De Civitate Dei contra Paganos ("The City of God against the Pagans"). In it, he
contrasted the fallen "city of Man" to the "city of God" of
which all Christians were ultimately citizens. Hence, the foreign invaders were
"not of the city" or "rural".[16][17][18]
The term "pagan" is not
attested in the English language until the 17th century.[19]
In addition to infidel and heretic, it was used as one of several pejorative
Christian counterparts to gentile (גוי
/ נכרי) as used in Judaism and to kafir
(كافر, unbeliever) and mushrik
(مشرك, idolater) as in Islam.[20]
Heathen
Heathen comes from Old English
hæðen ("not Christian or Jewish"); cf. Old Norse
heiðinn.
This meaning for the term originated from Gothic haiþno
("gentile
woman") being used to translate "Hellene" (cf. Mark 7:26)
in Wulfila's Bible, the first translation of the Bible into a Germanic language. This may have been influenced by the Greek and Latin
terminology of the time used for pagans. If so, it may be derived from Gothic haiþi
("dwelling on the heath"). However, this is not attested. It may
even be a borrowing of Greek ἔθνος (ethnos) via Armenian hethanos.[21]
Definition
It is perhaps misleading even to say
that there was such a religion as “paganism” at the beginning of [the Common
Era] ... It might be less confusing to say that the pagans, before their
competition with Christianity, had no religion at all in the sense in which
that word is normally used today. They had no tradition of discourse about
ritual or religious matters (apart from philosophical debate or antiquarian
treatise), no organized system of beliefs to which they were asked to commit
themselves, no authority-structure peculiar to the religious area, above all no
commitment to a particular group of people or set of ideas other than their
family and political context. If this is the right view of pagan life, it
follows that we should look on paganism quite simply as a religion invented in
the course of the second to third centuries AD, in competition and interaction
with Christians, Jews and others.
Defining paganism is problematic.
Understanding the context of its associated terminology is important.[23]
Early Christians referred to the diverse array of cults around them as a single group for convenience and rhetoric.[24]
While paganism generally implies polytheism,
the primary distinction between classical pagans and Christians was not one of monotheism
versus polytheism. Not all pagans were strictly polytheist. Throughout history,
many of them believed in a supreme deity. (Although, most such pagans believed in a class of
subordinate gods/daimons—see
henotheism—or
divine emanations.)[25]
To Christians, the most important distinction was whether or not someone
worshipped the one true God. Those who did not (polytheist, monotheist, atheist, or
otherwise) were outsiders to the Church and thus pagan.[26]
Similarly, classical pagans would have found it peculiar to distinguish groups
by the number of deities followers venerate. They would have considered the priestly
colleges (such as the College of Pontiffs or Epulones) and cult practices more meaningful distinctions.[27]
Referring to paganism as
"pre-Christian indigenous religions" is equally untenable. Not all
historical pagan traditions were pre-Christian or indigenous to their places of
worship.[23]
Owing to the history of its
nomenclature, paganism traditionally encompass the collective pre- and
non-Christian cultures in and around the classical world;
including those of the Greco-Roman, Celtic, Germanic, Slavic tribes.[28]
However, modern parlance of folklorists
and contemporary pagans in particular has extended the original four millennia
scope used by early Christians to include similar religious traditions
stretching far into prehistory.[29]
Perception
Paganism came to be equated by
Christians with a sense of hedonism, representing those who are sensual,
materialistic, self-indulgent, unconcerned with the future, and uninterested in
sophisticated religion. Pagans were usually described within this worldly stereotype,
especially among those drawing attention to what they perceived as the
limitations of paganism. Thus 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."[30]
History
Bronze
Age to Early Iron Age
Classical
antiquity
Ludwig Feuerbach defined "paganism" of classical antiquity, which he termed Heidentum, literally
"heathenry" as "the unity of religion and politics, of spirit
and nature, of god and man",[31]
qualified by the observation that "man" in the pagan view is always
defined by ethnicity, i.e. Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Jew, etc., so that each pagan
tradition is also a national tradition. Modern historians define paganism
instead as the aggregate of cult acts, set within a civic rather than a
"national" context, without a written creed or sense of orthodoxy.[32]
Feuerbach went on to postulate that
the emergence of monotheism and thus the end of the pagan period was a development
which naturally grew out of Hellenistic philosophy due to the contradiction inherent in the ethnic nature of
pagan tradition and the universality of human spirituality (Geist), finally
resulting in the emergence of a religion with a universalist scope in the form
of Christianity,[33]
No modern historian would see the
emergence of Christianity as a culmination of a trend towards an exclusive
monotheism: favoured deities addressed as "the One" did not preclude
their followers, even their priests, from worshiping other gods as well.[34]
Late
Antiquity
The developments of Late Antiquity
in the religious thought in the far-flung Roman Empire
needs to be addressed separately, as this is the context in which Early Christianity itself developed as one of several monotheistic cults, and
it was in this period that the concept of "pagan" developed in the
first place. Christianity as it emerged from Second Temple Judaism (or Hellenistic Judaism) stood in competition with other religions advocating
"pagan monotheism", including Neoplatonism,
Mithraism,
Gnosticism,
Manichaeanism, and the cult of Dionysus.[35]
Dionysus in particular exhibits significant parallels with Christ,
so that numerous scholars have concluded that the recasting of Jesus the wandering rabbi
into the image of Christ the Logos, the divine saviour, reflects the cult of Dionysus
directly. They point to the symbolism of wine and the importance it held in the
mythology surrounding both Dionysus and Jesus Christ;[36][37]
Wick argues that the use of wine symbolism in the Gospel of John,
including the story of the Marriage at Cana
at which Jesus turns water into wine, was intended to show Jesus as superior to
Dionysus.[38]
The scene in The Bacchae wherein Dionysus appears before King Pentheus
on charges of claiming divinity is compared to the New Testament scene of Jesus
being interrogated by Pontius Pilate.[38][39][40]
During
Muhammad's era in Arabia
The Arab pagans became virtually
extinct during Muhammad's era. They were involved in many conflicts with Muhammad. One of
the earliest was the Nakhla Raid. After his return from the first Badr encounter (Battle of Safwan),
Muhammad sent Abdullah ibn Jahsh in Rajab with 12 men on a fact-finding
operation. Abdullah ibn Jahsh was a maternal cousin of Muhammad. He took along
with him Abu Haudhayfa, Abdullah ibn Jahsh, Ukkash ibn Mihsan, Utba b. Ghazwan,
Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas, Amir ibn Rabia, Waqid ibn Abdullah and Khalid ibn
al-Bukayr.[41][42]
One of Abdullah ibn Jahsh’s men, Ukkash ibn Mihsan,
was shaven in head to hide the real purpose of their journey and to give the
Quraysh the impression of lesser Hajj (Umra);
for it was the month (Rajab) when hostilities were forbidden. When the Quraysh saw the
shaven head of Ukkash, they thought that the group was on its way for pilgrimage
and they felt relieved and began to set up camp. They said, "These people
seek the `Umrah, so there is no need to fear them." [42]
The sacred months of the Arab Pagans were the 1st, 7th, 11th and 12th months of
the Islamic calendar according to the Muslim scholar Safiur
Rahman Mubarakpuri.[43]
After Muhammad had conquered Mecca
he had set out to destroy pagan Idols. During the Expedition
of Ali ibn Abi Talib Muhammad sent Ali with 150
men to destroy the statue (idol) of the pagan God al-Qullus, worshipped by the
people of Banu Tai. 100 of the Muslim fighters were on camel and the rest were
on horseback. Ali took with him a black flag,
and a white banner.[44][45]
Adi bin Hatim (the chief of the tribe) escaped to Syria[46]
At dawn, Ali carried out a raid on
the inhabitants and demolished the statue of al-Qullus, and captured lots of
camel and sheep as war booty (spoils). The Muslims also took a number of men,
women and children as captives. One of the captives was Hatim Tai's (the former
chief of the tribes) daughter.[44][45]
Adi bin Hatim (the chief of the tribe) escaped to Syria[46]
One of the last military campaigns
that Muhammad ordered against the Arab pagans was the Demolition
of Dhul Khalasa. It occurred in April and May 632
AD, in 10AH of the Islamic Calendar. Dhul Khalasa
is referred to both as an idol and a temple, and was known by some as the Ka'ba of Yemen,
built and worshipped by pagan tribes,[47]
Muhammad sent a party of his followers to destroy it.[48][49][50][51]
Muhammad sent 500 horsemen (or 150
according to Sahih al-Bukhari[52])
to Dhul Khalasa[53]
to destroy the “Yemenite Ka’ba”.[49]
Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi mentions when Jarir ibn Abdullah proceeded to Dhul Khalasa,
he was met with resistance. The Muslims led by him, fought and killed 100 men
“of the Bahilah, its custodians, and many of the Khath'am” and another 200 men
of the “Banu-Qubafah” tribes. He then demolished the building and set it on
fire.[51][54][55]
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.[56]
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.[57]
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 folkloric
topics were also common in the Musical nationalism of the period.
Survivals
in folklore
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 like the carnival
in the Netherlands or Fasnacht and the Yule traditions surrounding Santa Claus/Sinterklaas.
By contrast, in spite of frequent association with Thor's Oak,
the Christmas tree cannot be shown to predate the Early Modern period.[citation
needed]
Contemporary
paganism
Contemporary Paganism, or
Neopaganism, can include reconstructed
religions such as the Cultus
Deorum Romanorum, Hellenic polytheism, Slavic Neopaganism (Rodnovery), Celtic
Reconstructionist Paganism, or Germanic religious reconstructionism, as well as modern eclectic
traditions such as Discordianism, Wicca and its many offshoots.
However, there often exists a
distinction or separation between some polytheistic Reconstructionists such as
the Greek or Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionists of the Hellenismos
religion and revivalist Neopagans like Wiccans. The divide is over numerous
issues such as; the importance of accurate orthopraxy
according to ancient sources available, the use and concept of magic, which
calendar to use and which holidays to observe, as well as the use of the term
"pagan" itself.[58][59][60]
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. Most Pagans, however, believe in the divine character of the
natural world and Paganism is often described as an "Earth religion".[61]
There are a number of Pagan authors
who have examined the relation of the 20th-century movements of polytheistic revival
with historical polytheism on one hand and contemporary traditions of
indigenous folk religion on the other. Isaac Bonewits
introduces a terminology to make this distinction,[62]
- Paleopaganism: A retronym
coined to contrast with "Neopaganism",
"original polytheistic, nature-centered faiths", such as the
pre-Hellenistic Greek and pre-imperial Roman
religion, pre-Migration period Germanic paganism as described by Tacitus,
or Celtic polytheism as described by Julius Caesar.
- Mesopaganism: A group, which is, or has been,
significantly influenced by monotheistic, dualistic, or nontheistic worldviews,
but has been able to maintain an independence of religious practices. This
group includes aboriginal Americans as well as Australian
aborigines, Viking Age
Norse paganism and New Age
spirituality. Influences include: Freemasonry,
Rosicrucianism, Spiritualism, and the many Afro-Diasporic faiths like Haitian Vodou,
Santería and Espiritu religion. Isaac Bonewits
includes British
Traditional Wicca in
this subdivision.
- Neopaganism:
A movement by modern people to revive nature-worshipping, pre-Christian
religions or other nature-based spiritual paths, frequently also
incorporating contemporary liberal
values at odds with ancient paganism. This definition may include groups
such as Wicca,
Neo-Druidism, Ásatrú,
and Slavic Rodnovery.
Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick in
their A History of Pagan Europe (1995) classify "pagan
religions" as characterized by the following traits:
·
polytheism: Pagan religions recognise a plurality of divine beings,
which may or may not be considered aspects of an underlying unity (the soft and
hard polytheism distinction)
·
"nature-based":
Pagan religions have a concept of the divinity of Nature, which they view as a manifestation of the divine, not as
the "fallen" creation found in Dualistic cosmology.
·
"sacred feminine":
Pagan religions recognize "the female divine principle", identified
as "the Goddess" (as opposed to individual goddesses)
beside or in place of the male divine principle as expressed in the Abrahamic God.[63]
In modern times, "Heathen"
and "Heathenry" are increasingly used to refer to those branches of
paganism inspired by the pre-Christian religions of the Germanic, Scandinavian
and Anglo-Saxon peoples.[64]
In Iceland, the
members of Ásatrúarfélagið account for 0.4% of the total population,[65]
which is just over a thousand people. In Lithuania, many people practice Romuva, a
revived version of the pre-Christian religion of that country. Lithuania was
among the last areas of Europe to be Christianized. In originally Anglo-Saxon
nations such as Australia, Odinism has been established on a formal basis since at least the
1930s.
Paganism
in Arabia
Even after Muhammad had destroyed
the Pagan Idol and Temple of Dhul Khalasa during the Demolition
of Dhul Khalasa military expedition,[51][54][55]
the cult of Dhul Khalasa was resurrected and worshipped in the region until
1815, when members of the Sunni Wahhabi movement
organised military campaigns to suppress remnants of pagan worship. The
reconstructed idol was subsequently destroyed by gunfire.[48]
Christianity
as pagan
Christianity itself has been
perceived at times as a form of polytheism
by followers of the other Abrahamic religions[66]
because of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity (which at
first glance might suggest Tritheism,[67])
or the celebration of pagan feast days[68]
and other practices – through a process described as "baptizing"[69]
or "Christianization". Even between Christians there have been similar
charges of idolatry levelled, especially by Protestants,[70][71]
towards the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches for their veneration
of the saints and images. Some scholars think that the essential doctrines of
Christianity have been influenced by pre-Christianity, paganism, or European
occults.[72]
Ethnic
religions of pre-Christian Europe
- Albanian mythology
- Armenian paganism
- Baltic paganism
- Basque mythology
- Celtic polytheism
- Etruscan religion
- Finnic mythology
- Germanic paganism
- Norse mythology
- Religion
in ancient Greece
- Religion
in ancient Rome
- Slavic paganism
- Vainakh mythology
See
also
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