Paganism

====Classical antiquity====
{{main article|Ancient Greek religion|Ancient Roman religion|Hellenistic religion|Roman imperial cult}}
[[Ludwig Feuerbach]] defined the paganism of [[classical antiquity]], which he termed {{lang|de|Heidentum}} ('heathenry') as "the unity of religion and politics, of spirit and nature, of god and man",<ref>cf. the civil, natural and mythical theologies of [[Marcus Terentius Varro]]</ref> 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 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]].<ref>A summary of the modern view is given in Robin Lane Fox, ''Pagans and Christians'' 1989, pp. 31 ''ff.'': "The modern emphasis on {{sic|hide=y|reason=Fox appears to have used "pagan", lower case, per external sources quoting him.|paganism}}'s cult acts was also acknowledged by {{sic|hide=y|pagans}} themselves. It shaped the way they tried and tested Christians."</ref>