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Paganism (from classical Latin pāgānus "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, [1] or ethnic religions other than Judaism.
Jul 15, 2024 · Paganism, Christian term used to designate those religions that do not worship the God of Abraham, the figure central to both Christianity and to other Abrahamic religions like Judaism and Islam.
- Ethan Doyle White
Patheos' Pagan library has information on Pagan religions and practices, the origins of Paganism, a look into beliefs and rituals of its practitioners, and other information.
- 1,000,000
- Early 20th Century
- Mainly Polytheistic
- Multiple, with diverse origins
According to ‘The ancient world’, burial evidence points to three main models of our earliest religious beliefs: the notion of the earth mother; veneration of the dead, and by extrapolation ancestor worship; and animism. Elements of these can also be found in the religions of the historic world.
Paganism is an ancient belief system that has been around for thousands of years. It is a polytheistic religion that is based on the worship of nature and the cycles of the natural world. Pagans believe in the interconnectedness of all things and strive to live in harmony with the natural world.
The earliest definition of paganus, the Latin word from which pagan derives, pertained to ‘rustic’, ‘of the countryside’. From the 5th century onwards, Christian authors began to reframe it in overtly religious terms, describing the pagani as rural idol worshippers.
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This Very Short Introduction explores the meaning of paganism from the ancient world to the present day through a chronological overview of attitudes towards its practices and beliefs.
