pagan

Etymology and nomenclature

Pagan

It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century, people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practiced. The notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition. As such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense.

The term pagan derives 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-combatant', 'civilian', 'unskilled soldier'. It is related to pangere ('to fasten', 'to fix or affix') and ultimately comes from Proto-Indo-European *pag- ('to fix' in the same sense):

The adoption of paganus by the 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.

Medieval writers often assumed that 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 easily than those in remote regions, where old ways tended to remain. 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.

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). A good example of Christians still using paganus in a military context rather than a religious one is in Tertullian's De Corona Militis XI.V, where the Christian is referred to as paganus (civilian):

Hellene

In the Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire of the newly Christianizing Roman Empire, Koine Greek became associated with the traditional polytheistic religion of Ancient Greece and was regarded as a foreign language (lingua peregrina) in the west. By the latter half of the 4th century in the Greek-speaking Eastern Empire, pagans were—paradoxically—most commonly called Hellenes (Ἕλληνες, lit. "Greeks") The word had almost entirely ceased being used in a cultural sense. It retained that meaning for roughly the first millennium of Christianity.

This was influenced by Christianity's early members, who were Jewish. The Jews of the time distinguished themselves from foreigners according to religion rather than ethno-cultural standards, and early Jewish Christians would have done the same. Since Hellenic culture was the dominant pagan culture in the Roman east, they referred to pagans as Hellenes. Christianity inherited Jewish terminology for non-Jews and adapted it to refer to non-Christians with whom they were in contact. This usage is recorded in the New Testament. In the Pauline epistles, Hellene is almost always juxtaposed with Hebrew regardless of actual ethnicity.

The usage of Hellene as a religious term was initially part of an exclusively Christian nomenclature, but some Pagans began to defiantly call themselves Hellenes. Other pagans even preferred the narrow 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 at imperial efforts to suppress Hellenic culture (especially concerning spoken and written Greek) and he openly criticized the emperor.

The growing religious stigmatization of Hellenism had a chilling effect on Hellenic culture by the late 4th century.

By late antiquity, however, it was possible to speak Greek as a primary language while not conceiving of oneself as a Hellene. The long-established use of Greek both in and around the Eastern Roman Empire as 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. In the first half of the 5th century, Greek was the standard language in which bishops communicated, and the Acta Conciliorum ("Acts of the Church Councils") were recorded originally in Greek and then translated into other languages.

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 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.

The term has recently been revived in the forms "Heathenry" and "Heathenism" (often but not always capitalized), as alternative names for the modern Germanic pagan movement, adherents of which may self-identify as Heathens.

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 very complex and problematic. Understanding the context of its associated terminology is important. Early Christians referred to the diverse array of cults around them as a single group for reasons of convenience and rhetoric. While paganism generally implies polytheism, the primary distinction between classical pagans and Christians was not one of monotheism versus polytheism, as not all pagans were strictly polytheist. Throughout history, many of them believed in a supreme deity; however, most such pagans believed in a class of subordinate gods/daimons—see henotheism—or divine emanations. To Christians, the most important distinction was whether or not someone worshipped the one true God. Those who did not (polytheist, monotheist, or atheist) were outsiders to the Church and thus considered pagan. 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.

Referring to paganism as a pre-Christian indigenous religion is equally untenable. Not all historical pagan traditions were pre-Christian or indigenous to their places of worship.

Owing to the history of its nomenclature, paganism traditionally encompasses the collective pre- and non-Christian cultures in and around the classical world; including those of the Greco-Roman, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic tribes. For example, Ludwig Feuerbach defined the paganism of classical antiquity, which he termed Heidentum ('heathenry'), as "the unity of religion and politics, of spirit and nature, of god and man", qualified by the observation that man in the pagan view is always defined by ethnicity, i.e., As a result, every pagan tradition is also a national tradition. Modern historians, however, 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. 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.

Perception and ethnocentrism

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 more mainstream religions. Pagans were usually described in terms of this worldly stereotype, especially among those drawing attention to what they perceived as the limitations of paganism.

Recently, the ethnocentric and moral absolutist origins of the common usage of the term pagan have been proposed, with scholar David Petts noting how, with particular reference to Christianity, "...local religions are defined in opposition to privileged 'world religions'; they become everything that world religions are not, rather than being explored as a subject in their own right." In addition, Petts notes how various spiritual, religious, and metaphysical ideas branded as "pagan" from diverse cultures were studied in opposition to Abrahamism in early anthropology, a binary he links to ethnocentrism and colonialism.

History

Late Antiquity

Pagan as a religious concept arose out of the development of Christianity, as an exonym to refer to certain non-Christian peoples and practices, both at the center of and in the outer reaches of the Roman Empire.

Early Christianity was one of several monotheistic cults within the Roman Empire, emerging from Second Temple Judaism and Hellenistic Judaism. It developed in context, relationship, and competition with other religions advocating both monotheism and polytheism. Early Christianity distinguished itself from these other religions through the concept of paganism, naming those "pagan" who did not worship "the one true God".

Notable monotheistic cults contemporary with Early Christianity included those of Dionysus, Neoplatonism, Mithraism, Gnosticism, and Manichaeanism. The cult of Dionysus is thought to have strongly influenced Early Christian themes, and is an example of how Christianity defined itself against "paganism" while incorporating "pagan" religious themes and practices. Numerous scholars have concluded that the conceptual construction of Jesus the wandering rabbi into the image of Christ the Logos, reflects direct influence from the cult of Dionysus, and the symbolism of wine and the importance it held in the mythology surrounding both Dionysus and Jesus Christ exemplifies this. Peter 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. The scene in The Bacchae wherein Dionysus appears before King Pentheus on charges of claiming divinity can be compared to the New Testament scene of Jesus being interrogated by Pontius Pilate.

Paganism in Albania serves as an example of how indigenous folk religious practices persisted under official policies of Christian conversion. Proto-Albanian speakers were Christianized under the Latin sphere of influence, specifically in the 4th century CE, as shown by the basic Christian terms in Albanian, which are of Latin origin and entered Proto-Albanian before the Gheg–Tosk dialectal diversification. Regardless of Christianization, paganism persisted among Albanians, and especially within the inaccessible and deep interior where Albanian folklore evolved over the centuries in a relatively isolated tribal culture and society. It has continued to persist, despite partially transformation by Christian, and later Muslim and Marxist beliefs, that were either to be introduced by choice or imposed by force. The Albanian traditional customary law (Kanun) has held a longstanding, unwavering, and sacred – although secular – unchallenged authority with a cross-religious effectiveness over the Albanians, which is attributed to an earlier pagan code common to all the Albanian tribes. Historically, the Christian clergy has vigorously fought, but without success, to eliminate the pagan rituals practiced by Albanians for traditional feasts and particular events, especially the fire rituals (Zjarri).

Postclassical history

Christianity was introduced late in Mani, with the first Greek temples converted into churches during the 11th century. Byzantine monk Nikon "the Metanoite" (Νίκων ὁ Μετανοείτε) was sent in the 10th century to convert the predominantly pagan Maniots. Although his preaching began the conversion process, it took over 200 years for the majority to accept Christianity fully by the 11th and 12th centuries. Patrick Leigh Fermor noted that the Maniots, isolated by mountains, were among the last Greeks to abandon the old religion, doing so towards the end of the 9th century: Sealed off from outside influences by their mountains, the semi-troglodytic Maniots themselves were the last of the Greeks to be converted. They only abandoned the old religion of Greece towards the end of the ninth century. It is surprising to remember that this peninsula of rock, so near the heart of the Levant from which Christianity springs, should have been baptised three whole centuries after the arrival of St. Augustine in far-away Kent. According to Constantine VII in De Administrando Imperio, the Maniots were referred to as 'Hellenes' and only fully Christianized in the 9th century, despite some church ruins from the 4th century indicating early Christian presence. The region's mountainous terrain allowed the Maniots to evade the Eastern Roman Empire's Christianization efforts, thus preserving pagan traditions, which coincided with significant years in the life of Gemistos Plethon.

The continuity of classical philosophical thought, especially Neoplatonism and Aristotelianism, within the Byzantine Empire necessitated a strategic management of theological risk, given that the Hellenic tradition implied pagan cosmology and metaphysics contradicting Christian orthodoxy. Modern scholarship posits that key Byzantine intellectuals employed conscious strategies of intellectual accommodation, or oikonomia, which secured the transmission of non-Christian material, often discussed under the framework of crypto-pagan dissimulation. These strategies allowed for the academic preservation of texts while publicly adhering to Christian orthodoxy.

The final generation of Neoplatonists established the survival strategies that would be inherited by Byzantium:

Proclus (412–485) and Damascius (458–538): As the successive heads of the Athenian School, both were overt practitioners of Hellenic paganism and Theurgy. The intellectual survival of their doctrines relied on structural abstraction: Proclus's systematic method in works like the Elements of Theology made him an indispensable philosophical quarry for later Christian theologians seeking a rigorous conceptual framework, thus ensuring his content's survival under the guise of intellectual utility. Damascius, the last head of the school before its closure in 529, is implicated in the most radical act of dissimulation: the pseudepigraphy of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (c. 500), which placed advanced Proclean Henology under apostolic authority, a strategy interpreted by scholars like Tuomo Lankila as a conscious "resurrect[ion of] the polytheistic religion" through concealment.

Modern history

The Ordine Osirideo Egizio claimed direct descent from a colony of Alexandrian priests who, fleeing persecution after the 4th century AD, sought refuge in Naples, preserving ancient pagan liturgies almost intact. Through the Middle Ages (5th–15th centuries) these rites persisted in secret esoteric circles and re-emerged during the Renaissance (14th–17th centuries), later inspiring figures such as Raimondo di Sangro (1710–1771), Prince of Sansevero.

Among modern theories concerning the transmission of pagan and hermetic elements in Renaissance and post-Renaissance Italy, one of the most elaborate posits an uninterrupted chain of initiatory figures, defined as “Great Hierophants" or "Supreme Pontiffs”, who are said to have succeeded one another beginning with the great humanist Giovanni Pontano. This narrative, rooted in esoteric and Masonic milieus—particularly those connected to the Neapolitan Egyptian rites—aims to illustrate a subterranean continuity of ancient paganism through humanism, hermeticism, and modern occultism. Although these theories are often regarded as retrospective constructions intended to legitimize initiatory orders of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they nevertheless reflect persistent Neopagan and Pythagorean influences in southern Italy. This theory forms part of the broader discourse on the survival of paganism, which includes syncretisms with Christianity, folkloric traditions, and occult revivals, highlighting how ancient magical and cosmological elements permeated European philosophical and initiatory thought.

15th century

Giovanni Pontano (1426–1503, humanist, philosopher, and scholar, founder of the Accademia Pontaniana)

16th century

Giambattista della Porta (1535–1615, natural philosopher and esoteric thinker, founder of the Academy of Secrets), Giordano Bruno (1548–1600, hermetic philosopher with magical and cosmological conceptions), Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639, philosopher of nature and natural magic).

17th–18th centuries

Raimondo di Sangro (1710–1771, Prince of Sansevero, alchemist, Freemason, member of the Egyptian Rite), Alessandro Cagliostro (1743–1795, occultist, alchemist, and Freemason), Vincenzo di Sangro (southern Italian esoteric nobleman, member of the di Sangro family), Mario Pagano (1748–1799, political philosopher with Masonic interests), Pietro Colletta (1775–1831, historian and politician with Masonic connections), Domenico Bocchini (active in the nineteenth century, initiated intellectual and Freemason).

Modern paganism

Late 20th century

The 1960s and 1970s saw a resurgence in neo-Druidism as well as the rise of modern Germanic paganism in the United States and in Iceland. In the 1970s, Wicca was notably influenced by feminism, leading to the creation of an eclectic, Goddess-worshipping movement known as Dianic Wicca. The 1979 publication of Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon and Starhawk's The Spiral Dance opened a new chapter in public awareness of paganism. With the growth and spread of large, pagan gatherings and festivals in the 1980s, public varieties of Wicca continued to further diversify into additional, eclectic sub-denominations, often heavily influenced by the New Age and counter-culture movements. These open, unstructured or loosely structured traditions contrast with British Traditional Wicca, which emphasizes secrecy and initiatory lineage.

The public appeal for pre-Christian Roman spirituality in the years following fascism was largely driven by Julius Evola. By the late 1960s, a renewed "operational" interest in pagan Roman traditions emerged from youth circles around Evola, particularly concerning the experience of the Gruppo di Ur. Evola's writings incorporated concepts from outside classical Roman religion, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, sexual magic, and private ritual nudity. This period saw the rise of the Gruppo dei Dioscuri in cities like Rome, Naples, and Messina, which published a series of four booklets, including titles such as L'Impeto della vera cultura and Rivoluzione Tradizionale e Sovversione, before fading from public view. The Evolian journal Arthos, founded in Genoa in 1972 by Renato del Ponte, expressed significant interest in Roman religion. In 1984, the Gruppo Arx revived Messina's Dioscuri activities, and Reghini's Pythagorean Association briefly resurfaced in Calabria and Sicily from 1984 to 1988, publishing Yghìeia.

Other publications include the Genoese Il Basilisco (1979–1989), which released several works on pagan studies, and Politica Romana (1994–2004), seen as a high-level Romano-pagan journal. One prominent figure was actor Roberto Corbiletto, who died in a mysterious fire in 1999.The 1980s and 1990s also saw an increasing interest in serious academic research and reconstructionist pagan traditions. The establishment and growth of the Internet in the 1990s brought rapid growth to these, and other pagan movements.

By the time of the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, freedom of religion was legally established across Russia and a number of other newly independent states, allowing for the growth in both Christian and non-Christian religions.

21st century

In the 2000s, Associazione Tradizionale Pietas began reconstructing temples across Italy and sought legal recognition from the state, drawing inspiration from similar groups like YSEE in Greece. In 2023, Pietas participated in the ECER meeting, resulting in the signing of the Riga Declaration, which calls for the recognition of European ethnic religions. Public rituals, such as those celebrating the ancient festival of the Natale di Roma, have also resumed in recent years.

The idea of practicing Roman religion in the modern era has spread beyond Italy, with practitioners found in countries across Europe and the Americas. The most prominent international organization is Nova Roma, founded in 1998, with active groups worldwide.

Modern paganism, or Neopaganism, includes reconstructed practice such as Roman Polytheistic Reconstructionism, Hellenism, Slavic Native Faith, Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism, or heathenry, as well as modern eclectic traditions such as Wicca and its many offshoots, Neo-Druidism, and Discordianism.

However, there often exists a distinction or separation between some polytheistic reconstructionists such as Hellenism 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.

In 1717 John Toland became the first Chosen Chief of the Ancient Druid Order, which became known as the British Circle of the Universal Bond. 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 modern pagans, however, believe in the divine character of the natural world and paganism is often described as an Earth religion.

There are a number of neopagan authors who have examined the relation of the 20th-century movements of polytheistic revival with historical polytheism on one hand and contemporary traditions of folk religion on the other. Isaac Bonewits introduced a terminology to make this distinction.