Paganism

===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>