Paganism

Paganism is an umbrella term that since the Emperor Theodosius means religions say, that is to say non- monotheistic. This term sometimes pejorative connotation ^Semantics

In Judaism , the "pagans" were those who did not recognize the God of Israel , the " goyim "(Hebrew plural: goyim) (ie," Evolution of the meaning of

In everyday language, the meaning and value of the word pagan is mixed. "Paganism" refers, among other religions practiced by the Greeks , the Romans and the Arabs before Islam and Christianity.

Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy believe that Christianity is a religion "revealed:" Good News "(Gospel) is revealed by Jesus Christ to mankind and is a continuation of Judaism it develops. The New Testament is the result of the Old and the Jews are included as "elder brothers in faith" ^, (Joseph Ratzinger and John Paul II) because even though Jews do not recognize Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God, Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy believe that Judaism is the revelation that there germinates and brings the prophecies it contains and its moral teaching . However religions do not recognize Jesus Christ as God incarnate can not be part of the package even if they have common elements with Christianity.

In some senses Christian ^Etymology

The origin of the term paganus is itself subject to controversy. For some, paganus meant "civil", for others, "peasant".

In the first case, Christians see themselves as soldiers of Christ (being then the Gentiles who are excluded from this army ). Tertullian (V.150 V.230 ~) values the milites Christi, "soldiers Christ , Christians "against pagana fides" those who believe the country, the faithful of the imperial religion ' . It is the moral compass of the " Opus Dei " Catholic , the "Army of the Lord" Orthodox and the " Army hello " Protestant , and the old orders of monks as soldiers.

In the second case, Christians are identified with Roman citizens living in the community (and "paganus" in the sense of "country man" of "indigenous" non-citizen retaining the previous religions, appears in the literary language in the late ^fourth century , without any derogatory connotation). The first author to use paganus is Marius Victorinus . paganus still works in relation to opposition to the idea of association, community, community, and it is through this that we must seek the origin the medieval sense of pagan. Moreover, paganism was not specifically rural and has long been entrenched in cities and very popular in the intellectual elite. This applies in particular to Rome where the Senate was still predominantly pagan under Theodosius ^I. This is not the sense of "peasant" paganus that was used in the religious sphere. Until quite late, much of the clergy Christian western regions is of Oriental origin and often rural: Greek, Syrian, Egyptian, and therefore does not seem paganus not oppose Urbanus and is not a synonymous rusticus. The term has nothing to do with the rural world, except in rare instances, as in Paul Orosius.

Philastrius uses this term to give an explanation that confirms that at the end of the ^fourth century "paganus" is an equivalent of "Hellene" (a term by which the Greeks of the Middle Ages polytheists designating their ancestors, when they themselves Rhmaioi defined themselves as "Rome", meaning "Roman Christians"). In St. Augustine , there is a connection between "paganism" and "gentiles", but in general the Bishop of Hippo employs paganus without explanation, to denote non-Christians. In the code of Theodosius II , Emperor Eastern Roman , in (409), Pagan finally replaces the old term of " nice "to refer to all non-Christian beliefs . In the Theodosian Code, under paganism sacrificiis and temples, it is written that we must destroy the pagan places of worship with all their idols (a tremendous loss in terms of art ).

History of concept

Within the geographical limits of the ancient world, centered on the Mediterranean , many religions have existed. In Mesopotamia , in Egypt , in Greece and then Rome , the gods were multiple, local or imported. The archaic deities, often rustic or chthonic , have evolved into more human deities, civilized, whose Olympians are the best example.

There was no word for all religions, although the Roman Empire had consolidated the exchanges of any kind between these peoples.

Other religions still exist, in Northern Europe , in East or Far East , in Africa , etc..

Through the millennia , two characters seem to be consistent in these religions, the shirk , ie, the belief in many gods, and tolerance for other gods, with frequent borrowings. Isis her temple was, for example to Rome and the Caesars theirs to Alexandria.

In the Mediterranean world, the first dissonance should come from the Hebrews who were monotheists. The Judea was a Roman province very special, with its religious power articulated political power of Rome, the Bible tells of the conflict. Jews do not recognize other gods, nor the divinity of Caesar. Caesar also accepted on the Chosen People being necessarily limited and little proselytizing.

Then came Christianity. Hinged on the faith of the Israelites and the Old Testament , this religion also excluded the recognition of any other god. The Mithraism recent monotheistic too, had no such exclusivity. Open to all, Christianity was soon to become major, to build a church and then after the emperors in its ranks. From its emergence in the conquest of supreme power, the case will take just three centuries.

"Paganism" designation when all known religions other than Christianity , as practiced by the "pagans." The etymology of the word shows for as will the pejorative word " infidel "or" infidel "for Muslims. Only Jews Hebrew, who shared the same God, kept a separate identity.

In 391 and 392 , the word is used officially in law by Theodosius I , emperor of the Roman Christian to ban these religions throughout the empire, already a Christian since 380. Then come, in the early ^fifth century, the widespread destruction and looting, massacres in which some of these religions spread, not clerical and non-dogmatic, do not survive.

This word, coined by a minority to appoint a majority, and gradually became the adjective of a minority, assumed crude and rural, so uncultured. The word then expands to Muslims, then goes beyond the field of religion, are also social practices that Christian morality disapproved. Even expanded, it remains a Christian perspective.

Although Christianity , and only official religion of the Roman Empire from 380 , then spread widely in Europe ( Charlemagne , Holy Roman Empire , etc..) cults and pagan practices still take place the following centuries, but underground conditions for survival. Under these conditions, the absence of sacred texts, oral tradition, secret cults contribute to almost completely eliminate these ancient religions. Some "traditional festivals" of the countryside still exist today, but have no religious significance. Our log Christmas is a pagan survival, such as Carnival , etc..

Since the European Renaissance (XVI ^century), paganism has been claimed by the humanists as a return to culture antique . ^{Hellenism reinvented}

Some, however, who give no evidence of a clandestine survival of the ancient religion of Greece, the only authentic paganism, having survived in Greece and redeveloping today is that of ("Hellenes", meaning the few Greek remained faithful to the gods of Olympus . But ("Hellenes"), became esoteric and clandestine, never exceeded a few thousand initiated before the twentieth ^century. .

Other paganisms

Nowadays, it qualifies as paganism, at least with regard to the Christian culture of Europe , religions distant who have never participated in the founding of the word, such as Hinduism.

In the context of globalization , neo-pagan movements have made their modern junction in 1998 with other religions, polytheistic , in the World Congress of Ethnic Religions ( WCER ) and hope to be recognized. At a time when the development of Islam in Europe calls into question the established equilibrium since the ^nineteenth century, reducing the monotheistic recognized common cause, the issue is more utopian.

Concept

"Pagan" is originally a Christian concept specifically designated all those who, apart from the Jews (for obvious reasons), are not Christians. In the Middle Ages , the Song of Roland called "pagans" the Muslims. This concept is therefore a mix between very different realities and that, until the time when Christianity became the official religion (or quasi-official), were not received by them as one. In the ancient Christian writers Tertullian or Lactantius and Augustine, the pagan is like the sniffing dog, in search of food or the dog barks and bites, as the heathen after the Christians especially the heathen is one who is awaiting conversion.

The question of the transformation of pagan temples into churches English following the instructions of Gregory the Great to reflect on the concept of pagan. The term "paganu s' is only found in the registry where the letters of the pope, clearly pagani is synonymous with gentiles. Gregory does not necessarily pagans in a negative way. In the Carolingian period, the correspondence of Alcuin shows a genuine concern among the adviser of Charlemagne for the conversion of pagans. During military campaigns against the Saxons, he always advocated persuasion, reminding repeatedly that we can not give faith to a pagan by violence.

The name "dog" for pagans is a common insult in many texts, particularly in the Germanic and Slavic world, during the Middle Ages. This insult is still widely used in the late Middle Ages.

She was already used in the Old Testament by the Jews, thus marking the sacred prostitutes polytheisms contemporaries, extending the term for homosexuals. He has no more insulting in the Gospel according to Matthew 15 (21-28), where he becomes affectionate rather than demeaning as applying to the Canaanite longing for faith, not as opposite. The tumultuous history between the Roman and early Christian was able to bring him back.

However, time has passed since then and, given today, the concept is not irrelevant (and the word seems more convenient than the alternatives we could find him, "traditional religion", " polytheism, "which also have their imperfections), provided that one keeps in mind that identifies a multifaceted reality. Paganism is a convenient term to refer broadly religious practices of the ancient world ( Europe , Middle East, North Africa ) outside of Christianity and Judaism.

From the Renaissance movement resurfaced claiming religious or philosophical paganism again:

• the neo-paganism of the Humanists of the ^sixteenth century ;
• the neopaganism Celtic ( nodruidisme ), Germanic, Norse ( Asatru ), Egyptian ( Kemetic ) and Greek ( Hellenic ) from the late ^nineteenth century to the ^twentieth century.

Do not confuse Paganism with atheism. The pagans have a sense of the sacred and mystical foreign to atheists.

The Luciferianism Is paganism? The belief in the existence of demons or be personifying evil exists in almost all religions are founded on the opposition right / wrong. Do not confuse religion and belief: Christianity teaches the belief in the existence of Satan, but rejects any idea of worship which is due only to God. As the Satanism of Anton Szandor LaVey , his followers believing in any deity, but thinking that man is the only god, they are harder to classify.

History