We explain what a pagan is, the origin of the term and its relationship with monotheistic religions. Also, what is neopaganism.
What is a pagan?
Commonly, pagans are those who exercise religious practices that do not correspond to the great religions monotheists. In general, it is a term that is reserved for the practitioners of the Greco-Roman, Celtic or Slavic religious traditions, as well as their modern reinterpretations (neopaganism).
The word pagan comes from Latin paganus, which translates "inhabitant of the payment", that is, of the village, of the field, of the rustic surroundings. It began to be used in the 5th century, when Christianity had already become the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Back then, it was a derogatory way of calling out to villagers and peasants who rejected the Christian faith or half accepted it, for they were still clinging to their faith. beliefs and traditional religions, more linked to the natural cycles that accompany agricultural life.
Thus, initially, pagani they were the non-Christians of the empire, or those still clinging to the Greco-Roman faith. This was later added to the rest of the non-Roman cults and religions, although Jews and Muslims were exempt, since Judaism and Islam They are Abrahamic monotheistic religions, that is, related to Christian worship (all three are called "religions of the book").
In general, the monotheistic tradition looks very badly at paganism. Accusations of idolatry, hedonism or heresy were common throughout Christian history, for example. In the light of Christianity, African religions, Native American religions, Asian religions and all forms of non-theistic mysticism are pagan.
Paradoxically, during the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic, Coptic, Anglican and Orthodox churches themselves were often accused of covering up a kind of paganism, given their tendency to use images and statues in religious practice, and to preserve a growing sanctuary of venerated images.
Neopaganism
Neo-paganism ("new paganism") is a set of modern mystical or religious movements, which revive the imaginary and practices of the European or American pagan cults, often relating them with certain considerations environmentalists current. In general, the movement encompasses four major trends:
- Traditional witchcraft. Related to traditional European or American witchcraft stories.
- The wicca or new witchcraft. Emerged in Europe in the twentieth century, from a series of reconsiderations of the imaginary of traditional witchcraft.
- Cults based on modern syncretism. That is, in the coexistence of elements of different pagan origin, vaguely classifiable within the so-called New age.
- Neo-pagan reconstructionism. Which consists of the modern attempt to revive as faithfully as possible the cult of the deities of classical antiquity: Tengrianism, Neo-Shamanism, Egyptian religion, Hellenic religion, Germanic religion or Celtic Druidic religion, among others.