Paganism

==Nomenclature and etymology==
[[File:Akropolis-detail.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of the [[Parthenon]], on the [[Acropolis of Athens]], [[Greece]]]]

===Pagan===
{{Details|Pagus}}
{{Blockquote|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 practised. 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.|[[Owen Davies (historian)|Owen Davies]]|Paganism: A Very Short Introduction, 2011<ref name="Davies, Owen 2011">Davies, Owen (2011). ''Paganism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0191620010}}.</ref>}}

The term ''pagan'' derives from [[Late Latin]] {{lang|la|[[wikt:paganus|paganus]]}}, revived during the [[Renaissance Latin|Renaissance]]. Itself deriving from [[classical Latin]] {{lang|la|[[wikt:pagus|pagus]]}} which originally meant 'region delimited by markers', {{lang|la|paganus}} had also come to mean 'of or relating to the countryside', 'country dweller', 'villager'; by extension, '[[wikt:rustic|rustic]]', 'unlearned', '[[wikt:yokel|yokel]]', '[[wikt:bumpkin|bumpkin]]'; in Roman military [[jargon]], 'non-combatant', 'civilian', 'unskilled soldier'. It is related to {{lang|la|[[wikt:pangere|pangere]]}} ('to fasten', 'to fix or affix') and ultimately comes from [[Proto-Indo-European]] ''*pag-'' ('to fix' in the same sense):<ref name="etymonline_pagan">{{cite web|last=Harper|first=Douglas|title=pagan (n.)|url=http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=pagan&allowed_in_frame=0|work=The Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=18 July 2013}}</ref>

{{quote|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 (''[[Wikt:ethnicon|ethnikos]]'') remained the word for pagan; and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace.|[[Peter Brown (historian)|Peter Brown]]|''Late Antiquity'', 1999<ref name="Peter Brown 1999">Peter Brown, in Glen Warren Bowersock, Peter Robert Lamont Brown, Oleg Grabar, eds., ''Late Antiquity: a guide to the postclassical world'', 1999, ''s.v.'' Pagan.</ref>}}

[[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 [[wikt:rusticitas|''rusticitas'']], ''paganus'' had not yet fully acquired the meanings (of uncultured backwardness) used to explain why it would have been applied to pagans.{{sfn|Cameron|2011|pp=14–15}}

''Paganus'' more likely acquired its meaning in Christian nomenclature via [[Roman military]] jargon (see above). Early Christians adopted military motifs and saw themselves as ''[[miles Christianus|Milites Christi]]'' (soldiers of Christ).<ref name="etymonline_pagan"/>{{sfn|Cameron|2011|pp=14–15}} 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''): {{sfn|Cameron|2011|pp=14–15}}
{|
 |style="padding-left: 6em; padding-right: 1em;"|''Apud hunc [Christum] tam miles est paganus fidelis quam paganus est miles fidelis.''<ref>[[s:la:De corona militis#11|''De Corona Militis'' XI.V]]</ref>
 |style="padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 6em;"|With Him [Christ] the faithful citizen is a soldier, just as the faithful soldier is a citizen.<ref>[[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume III/Apologetic/The Chaplet, or De Corona/Chapter XI|Ante-Nicene Fathers III, De Corona XI]]</ref>
 |}

''Paganus'' acquired its religious connotations by the mid-4th century.{{sfn|Cameron|2011|pp=14–15}} 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 (410)|sack of Rome]] by the [[Visigoths]] just over fifteen years after the [[Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I]],<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14577d.htm| title = "Theodosius I",'' The Catholic Encyclopedia'', 1912}}</ref> 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 [[The City of God|''De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos'']] ('The City of God against the Pagans'). In it, he contrasted the fallen "city of Man" with the "city of God", of which all Christians were ultimately citizens. Hence, the foreign invaders were "not of the city" or "rural".<ref>"The City of God". [[Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD]], 2003.</ref><ref>Orosius <u>Histories 1. Prol.</u> ''"ui alieni a civitate dei..pagani vocantur."''</ref><ref>C. Mohrmann, ''Vigiliae Christianae'' 6 (1952) 9ff; [http://dictionary.oed.com ''Oxford English Dictionary'', (online) 2nd Edition (1989)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060625103623/http://dictionary.oed.com/ |date=25 June 2006 }}</ref>

The term pagan was not attested in the English language until the 17th century.<ref>The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]]'' instances [[Edward Gibbon]]'s ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire|Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'', Vol. II, "Chapter XXI: Persecution of Heresy, State of the Church. Part VII" (1776): "The divisions of Christianity suspended the ruin of {{sic|hide=y|reason=Gibbon capitalized here, though did not do so consistently throughout the work.|Paganism}}."</ref> In addition to ''[[wikt:infidel|infidel]]'' and ''[[wikt:heretic|heretic]]'', it was used as one of several [[pejorative]] Christian counterparts to ''[[wikt:goy|goy]]'' ({{lang|he|[[goy|גוי]]|rtl=yes}} / {{lang|he|נכרי|rtl=yes}}) as used in Judaism, and to ''[[kafir]]'' ({{lang|ar|كافر|rtl=yes}}, 'unbeliever') and ''[[mushrik]]'' ({{lang|ar|مشرك|rtl=yes}}, 'idolater') as in Islam.<ref>Eisenstadt, S.N. (1983). "Transcendental Visions – Other-Worldliness – and Its Transformations: Some More Comments on L. Dumont. ''Religion''" 13:1–17, at p. 3.</ref>

===Hellene===
{{Details|Hellenes (religion)}}

In the Latin-speaking [[Western Roman Empire]] of the newly [[Christianization of the Roman Empire|Christianizing Roman Empire]], [[Koine Greek]] became associated with the [[Religion in ancient Greece|traditional polytheistic religion]] of [[Ancient Greece]] and was regarded as a foreign language (''lingua peregrina'') in the west.<ref>Augustine, ''Confessions'' 1.14.23; Moatii, "Translation, Migration, and Communication", p. 112.</ref> By the latter half of the 4th century in the Greek-speaking [[Eastern Roman Empire|Eastern Empire]], pagans were—paradoxically—most commonly called ''Hellenes'' ({{lang|grc|Ἕλληνες}}, lit. "Greeks") The word had almost entirely ceased being used in a cultural sense.<ref name="Cameron93">{{cite book|last1=Cameron|first1=Alan G.|last2=Long|first2=Jacqueline|last3=Sherry|first3=Lee|title=Barbarians and Politics at the Court of Arcadius|year=1993|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|isbn=978-0520065505|pages=66–67|url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=9780520065505|chapter=2: Synesius of Cyrene; VI: The ''Dion''}}</ref>{{sfn|Cameron|2011|pp=16–17}} It retained that meaning for roughly the first millennium of Christianity.

This was influenced by Christianity's early members, who were [[Jewish Christian|Jewish]]. The Jews of the time distinguished themselves from foreigners according to religion rather than [[Ethnicity|ethno]]-[[Culture|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 in order 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{{sfn|Cameron|2011|pp=16–17}}

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.<ref name="Cameron93"/>

The growing religious stigmatization of Hellenism had a [[chilling effect]] on Hellenic culture by the late 4th century.<ref name="Cameron93"/>

By late antiquity, however, it was possible to speak Greek as a primary language while not conceiving of oneself as a Hellene.<ref>Simon Swain, "Defending Hellenism: Philostratus, in Honour of Apollonius", in ''Apologetics,'' p. 173.</ref> 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 [[Pauline epistles|Epistles of Paul]].<ref>Treadgold, ''A History of the Byzantine State,'' p. 5.</ref> In the first half of the 5th century, Greek was the standard language in which bishops communicated,<ref>Millar, ''A Greek Roman Empire,'' pp. 97–98.</ref> and the ''Acta Conciliorum'' ("Acts of the Church Councils") were recorded originally in Greek and then translated into other languages.<ref>Millar, ''A Greek Roman Empire,'' p. 98.</ref>

===Heathen===
[[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Heathen]] comes from [[Old English]] ''hæðen'' (not Christian or Jewish); cf. [[Old Norse]] {{lang|non|[[wikt:heiðinn|heiðinn]]}}. This meaning for the term originated from [[Gothic language|Gothic]] {{lang|got|[[wikt:haiþno|haiþno]]}} ([[gentile]] woman) being used to translate Hellene<ref>cf. {{bibleverse||Mark|7:26|KJV}}</ref> in [[Gothic Bible|Wulfila's Bible]], the first translation of the [[Bible]] into a [[Germanic languages|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 {{lang|got|[[wikt:haiþi|haiþi]]}} (dwelling on the [[heath]]). However, this is not [[attested language|attested]]. It may even be a borrowing of Greek {{lang|grc|[[wikt:ἔθνος|ἔθνος]]}} ({{transl|el|ethnos}}) via [[Armenian language|Armenian]] {{lang|hy|[[wikt:հեթանոս#Armenian|hethanos]]}}.<ref>{{cite web |last=Harper |first=Douglas |title=heathen (n.) |url=http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=heathen&allowed_in_frame=0 |work=The Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=18 July 2013 }}</ref>

The term has recently been revived in the forms [[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Heathenry]] and Heathenism (often but not always capitalized), as alternative names for the [[Germanic neopaganism|Germanic neopagan]] movement, adherents of which may self-identify as Heathens.