When Christianity switched from a persecuted fringe sect to the state religion of the Roman Empire in 415 CE, those in the new monotheistic mainstream came up with an insult for the polytheistic "hicks" who still worshipped the pantheon of Roman gods. They called them "pagans" fromthe Latin wordpaganusfor "country dweller."
While most of the rites and practices of Pagan belief systems died out centuries ago, some modern spiritual seekers have recovered those ancient wisdom traditions and now proudly identify as Pagan. By some measures, Modern Paganism is one of America'sfastest-growing religionswith an estimated 1 million followers of various Pagan sects in the United States.According to the 2014 Pew Religious Landscape Study0.3每cent of Americans identify as "Pagan orWicca," which is the same number who identify as Unitarian. In 2008, there were just340,000 Pagansin the U.S.
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Modern Paganism (also called Neopaganism, Contemporary Paganism or just Paganism) is a revival movement that encompasses a wide and rich variety of polytheistic religious traditions: Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman practices, as well as Wicca (modern witchcraft),Ásatrú(theworship of Norse gods, goddesses and land spirits) andDruidism(an Indo-European priesthood).
With such a diversity of religious traditions and rituals, Modern Paganism defies easy definition. The religious scholar Michael Strmiskadescribed Modern Paganismas a collection of religious movements "dedicated to reviving the polytheistic, nature-worshipping pagan religions of pre-Christian Europe and adapting them for the use of people in modern societies."
What Modern Pagans are definitelynotis "historical reenactors," saysJefferson Calico, a religion professor at the University of the Cumberlands, Kentucky, and author of "Being Viking: Heathenism in Contemporary America."
"Contemporary Pagans feel a strong connection to the past and look to those pre-Christian practices and cultures and spirituality as inspiration for what they're trying to recover, find again or create anew," says Calico. "They look at pre-Christian traditions of the past as repositories of ancient sacred wisdom and lifestyles that connected us to the cosmos and to each other in ways that are holy and sacred."
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