Paganism

Pagan redirects here. For other uses, see Pagan (dis- While most pagan religions express a worldview that
ambiguation).
is pantheistic, polytheistic, or animistic, there are some
Heathens redirects here. For the Twenty One Pilots monotheistic pagans.[6]
song, see Heathens (song).
Not to be confused with Pagani.
Paganism is a term that rst arose among the Christian 1 Nomenclature and etymology

Some megaliths are believed to have religious signicance.

Reconstruction of the Parthenon, on the Acropolis of Athens,

Greece.

community of southern Europe during late antiquity as a

descriptor of religions other than their own, or the related
Abrahamic religions; e.g., Judaism and Islam.[1]
1.1 Pagan
There has been much scholarly debate as to the origin
It is crucial to stress right from the start
of the term paganism, especially since no one before the
that
until the 20th century people did not call
20th century self-identied as a pagan.[2]
themselves pagans to describe the religion
Once the Abrahamic religions started to become more
they practised. The notion of paganism, as
widely adopted (in processes known as Christianization
it is generally understood today, was created
and Islamization), various names to describe those who
by the early Christian Church. It was a label
did not adhere to them started to develop; some of these
that Christians applied to others, one of the
included Hellene, pagan, and heathen, and at times these
antitheses that were central to the process of
names were used as slurs.[3] In the 19th century, paganism
Christian self-denition. As such, throughout
was re-adopted as a self-descriptor by members of varihistory it was generally used in a derogatory
ous artistic groups inspired by the ancient world. In the
sense.
20th century, it came to be applied as a self-description
Owen Davies, Paganism: A Very Short
by practitioners of contemporary pagan, or neopagan, reIntroduction, 2011[7]
ligious movements.
Contemporary knowledge of old pagan religions comes
from several sources, including anthropological eld research records, the evidence of archaeological artefacts,
and the historical accounts of ancient writers regarding
cultures known to the classical world. Forms of these
religions, inuenced by various historical pagan beliefs
of pre-modern Europe, exist today and are known as
contemporary or modern paganism, also referred to as
Neopaganism.[4][5]

The term pagan is from Late Latin paganus, revived during the Renaissance. Itself deriving from classical Latin
pagus which originally meant 'region delimited by markers, paganus had also come to mean 'of or relating to
the countryside', 'country dweller', 'villager'; by extension, 'rustic', 'unlearned', 'yokel', 'bumpkin'; in Roman
military jargon, 'non-combatant', 'civilian', 'unskilled soldier'. It is related to pangere ('to fasten', 'to x or ax')
1

1 NOMENCLATURE AND ETYMOLOGY

and ultimately comes from Proto-Indo-European *pag- terparts to gentile ( / )as used in Judaism, and to
('to x' in the same sense).[8]
kar (, 'unbeliever') and mushrik (, 'idolater') as
in Islam.[17]
The adoption of paganus by the Latin
Christians as an all-embracing, pejorative
term for polytheists represents an unforeseen
1.2 Hellene
and singularly long-lasting victory, within
a religious group, of a word of Latin slang
For more details on this topic, see Hellenes (religion).
originally devoid of religious meaning. The
evolution occurred only in the Latin west,
In the Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire of the
and in connection with the Latin church.
newly Christianizing Roman Empire, Koine Greek beElsewhere, Hellene or gentile (ethnikos)
came associated with the traditional polytheistic religion
remained the word for pagan; and paganos
of Ancient Greece, and regarded as a foreign language
continued as a purely secular term, with over(lingua peregrina) in the west.[18] By the latter half of the
tones of the inferior and the commonplace.
[3]
4th century in the Greek-speaking Eastern Empire, pa Peter Brown, Late Antiquity, 1999
gans wereparadoxicallymost commonly called Hellenes (, lit. 'Greeks). The word almost entirely
[19][20]
It retained
Medieval writers often assumed that paganus as a reli- ceased being used in a cultural sense.
that
meaning
for
roughly
the
rst
millennium
of Chrisgious term was a result of the conversion patterns durtianity.
ing the Christianization of Europe, where people in towns
and cities were converted more readily than those in remote regions, where old ways lingered. However, this
idea has multiple problems. First, the words usage as a
reference to non-Christians pre-dates that period in history. Second, paganism within the Roman Empire centered 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 rusticitas, paganus had not yet fully acquired the
meanings (of uncultured backwardness) used to explain
why it would have been applied to pagans.[9]

This was inuenced by Christianitys early membership, who were Jewish. Jews of the time distinguished
themselves from foreigners according to religion rather
than ethno-cultural standards, and early Jewish Christians
would have done the same. As Hellenic culture was the
dominant pagan culture in the Roman east, they called
pagans Hellene. Christianity inherited Jewish terminology for non-Jews and adapted it to refer to non-Christians
they were in contact with. This usage is recorded in the
New Testament. In the Pauline epistles, Hellene is almost always juxtaposed to Hebrew in disregard of actual
[20]
Paganus more likely acquired its meaning in Christian ethnicities.
nomenclature via Roman military jargon (see above). Usage of Hellene as a religious term was initially part of
Early Christians adopted military motifs and saw them- an exclusively Christians nomenclature, but some Pagans
selves as "Milites Christi" (soldiers of Christ).[8][9] A began deantly calling themselves Hellenes. Other pagood example of Christians still using paganus in a mil- gans even preferred the narrowed meaning of the word
itary context rather than religious is in Tertullian's De from a broad cultural sphere to a more specic religious
Corona Militis XI.V, where the Christian is referred to grouping. However, there were many Christians and pagans alike who strongly objected to the evolution of the
as paganus (civilian):[9]
terminology. The inuential Archbishop of ConstantinoPaganus acquired its religious connotations by the mid[9]
4th century. As early as the 5th century, paganos was ple Gregory of Nazianzus, for example, took oence to
imperial eorts to suppress Hellenic culture (especially
metaphorically used to denote persons outside the bounds
and written Greek) and openly critiof the Christian community. Following the sack of concerning spoken[19]
cized
the
emperor.
Rome by pagan Visigoths just over fteen years after
the Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius
I,[12] 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 De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos ('The City of God against the Pagans). In
it, he contrasted the fallen city of Man to the city of
God of which all Christians were ultimately citizens.
Hence, the foreign invaders were not of the city or
rural.[13][14][15]

The growing religious stigmatization of Hellenism had

a chilling eect on Hellenic culture by the late 4th
century.[19]

By late antiquity, however, it was possible to speak Greek

as a primary language while not conceiving of oneself
a Hellene.[21] The long-established use of Greek in
and around the eastern Roman Empire a lingua franca
ironically allowed it to instead become central in enabling the spread of Christianityas indicated for exThe term pagan is not attested in the English language un- ample by the use of Greek for the Epistles of Paul.[22]
til the 17th century.[16] In addition to indel and heretic, In the rst half of the 5th century, Greek was the stanit was used as one of several pejorative Christian coun- dard language in which bishops communicated,[23] and

3
the Acta Conciliorum (Acts of the Church Councils) Throughout history, many of them believed in a supreme
were recorded originally in Greek and then translated into deity. (However, most such pagans believed in a class of
other languages.[24]
subordinate gods/daimonssee henotheismor divine
emanations.)[6] To Christians, the most important distinction was whether or not someone worshipped the one
1.3 Heathen
true God. Those who did not (polytheist, monotheist, or
atheist) were outsiders to the Church and thus pagan.[29]
Heathen comes from Old English hen (not Chris- Similarly, classical pagans would have found it peculiar
tian or Jewish); cf. Old Norse heiinn. This mean- to distinguish groups by the number of deities followers
ing for the term originated from Gothic haino ("gentile venerate. They would have considered the priestly colwoman) being used to translate Hellene (cf. Mark leges (such as the College of Pontis or Epulones) and
7:26) in Wullas Bible, the rst translation of the Bible cult practices more meaningful distinctions.[30]
into a Germanic language. This may have been inuenced
by the Greek and Latin terminology of the time used Referring to paganism as pre-Christian indigenous relifor pagans. If so, it may be derived from Gothic haii gions is equally untenable. Not all historical pagan trapre-Christian or indigenous to their places of
(dwelling on the heath"). However, this is not attested. ditions were
[27]
worship.
It may even be a borrowing of Greek (ethnos) via
Armenian hethanos.[25]
Owing to the history of its nomenclature, paganism
The term has recently been revived in the forms Hea- traditionally encompasses the collective pre- and nonthenry and Heathenism (often but not always capital- Christian cultures in and around the classical world; inized), alternatives names for the Germanic neopaganism cluding those[31]of the Greco-Roman, Celtic, Germanic,
movement, adherents to which may self-identify as Hea- Slavic tribes. However, modern parlance of folklorists
and contemporary pagans in particular has extended the
thens.
original four millennia scope used by early Christians
to include similar religious traditions stretching far into
prehistory.[32]

Denition

It is perhaps misleading even to say that

there was such a religion as paganism at the
beginning of [the Common Era] ... It might
be less confusing to say that the pagans, before
their competition with Christianity, had no
religion at all in the sense in which that word
is normally used today. They had no tradition
of discourse about ritual or religious matters
(apart from philosophical debate or antiquarian treatise), no organized system of beliefs to
which they were asked to commit themselves,
no authority-structure peculiar to the religious
area, above all no commitment to a particular
group of people or set of ideas other than their
family and political context. If this is the right
view of pagan life, it follows that we should
look on paganism quite simply as a religion
invented in the course of the second to third
centuries AD, in competition and interaction
with Christians, Jews and others.
North 1992, 18788, [26]

3 Perception
Paganism came to be equated by Christians with a sense
of hedonism, representing those who are sensual, materialistic, self-indulgent, unconcerned with the future, and
uninterested in sophisticated religion. Pagans were usually described within this worldly stereotype, especially
among those drawing attention to what they perceived as
the limitations of paganism.[33] Thus G. K. Chesterton
wrote: The pagan set out, with admirable sense, to enjoy himself. By the end of his civilization he had discovered that a man cannot enjoy himself and continue
to enjoy anything else. In sharp contrast, Swinburne the
poet would comment on this same theme: Thou hast
conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey
from thy breath; We have drunken of things Lethean, and
fed on the fullness of death.[34] There have been very
strong yet very false stereotypes of relating paganism to
satanisim.

4 History
Dening paganism is problematic. Understanding the
context of its associated terminology is important.[27] 4.1 Bronze Age to Early Iron Age
Early Christians referred to the diverse array of cults
around them as a single group for reasons of conve Religions of the ancient Near East
nience and rhetoric.[28] While paganism generally im Ancient Egyptian religion
plies polytheism, the primary distinction between clas Ancient Semitic religion
sical pagans and Christians was not one of monotheism
versus polytheism. Not all pagans were strictly polytheist.
Ancient Mesopotamian religion

4.2

5 MODERN PAGANISM

Classical antiquity

that Muhammad ordered against the Arab pagans was the

Demolition of Dhul Khalasa. It occurred in April and
Main articles: Religion in ancient Greece, Ancient Ro- May 632 AD, in 10AH of the Islamic Calendar. Dhul
man religion, Hellenistic religion, and Roman imperial Khalasa is referred to as both an idol and a temple, and
it was known by some as the Ka'ba of Yemen, built and
cult
worshipped by pagan tribes.[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57]
Ludwig Feuerbach dened the paganism of classical antiquity, which he termed Heidentum ('heathenry') as the
unity of religion and politics, of spirit and nature, of god
and man,[35] qualied by the observation that man in the
pagan view is always dened by ethnicity, i.e. Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Jew, etc., so that each pagan tradition is
also a national tradition. Modern historians dene 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.[36]

4.3 Early Modern period

Interest in pagan traditions was revived in the

Renaissance, at rst in Renaissance magic as a revival of Greco-Roman magic. In the 17th century,
description of paganism turned from the theological
aspect to the ethnological, and a religion began to be
understood as part of the ethnic identity of a people, and
the study of the religions of primitive peoples triggered
questions as to the ultimate historical origin of religion.
Thus, Nicolas Fabri de Peiresc saw the pagan religions of
4.2.1 Late Antiquity and Christianization
Africa of his day as relics that were in principle capable
of
shedding light on the historical paganism of Classical
Further information: Decline of Hellenistic paganism
[58]
Antiquity.
and Hellenic philosophy and Christianity
The developments in the religious thought of the farung Roman Empire during Late Antiquity needs to
be addressed separately, because this is the context in
which Early Christianity itself developed as one of several
monotheistic cults, and it was in this period that the concept of pagan developed in the rst place. As Christianity emerged from Second Temple Judaism (or Hellenistic
Judaism), it stood in competition with other religions
advocating pagan monotheism, including the cult of
Dionysus,[37] Neoplatonism, Mithraism, Gnosticism, and
Manichaeanism. Dionysus in particular exhibits signicant parallels with Christ, so that numerous scholars have
concluded that the recasting of Jesus the wandering rabbi
into the image of Christ the Logos, the divine saviour, reects the cult of Dionysus directly. They point to the symbolism of wine and the importance it held in the mythology surrounding both Dionysus and Jesus Christ;[38][39]
Wick argues that the use of wine symbolism in the Gospel
of John, including the story of the Marriage at Cana at
which Jesus turns water into wine, was intended to show
Jesus as superior to Dionysus.[40] The scene in The Bacchae wherein Dionysus appears before King Pentheus on
charges of claiming divinity is compared to the New Testament scene of Jesus being interrogated by Pontius Pilate.[40][41][42]
4.2.2

Muhammed and Islamization in Arabia

4.4 Romanticism
Paganism re-surfaces as a topic of fascination in 18th to
19th century Romanticism, in particular in the context of
the literary Celtic and Viking revivals, which portrayed
historical Celtic and Germanic polytheists as noble savages.
The 19th century also saw much scholarly interest in
the reconstruction of pagan mythology from folklore or
fairy tales. This was notably attempted by the Brothers
Grimm, especially Jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology, and Elias Lnnrot with the compilation of the
Kalevala. The work of the Brothers Grimm inuenced
other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and
leading them to similarly believe that the fairy tales of a
country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural inuence. Among those inuenced
were the Russian Alexander Afanasyev, the Norwegians
Peter Christen Asbjrnsen and Jrgen Moe, and the Englishman Joseph Jacobs.[59]
Romanticist interest in non-classical antiquity coincided
with the rise of Romantic nationalism and the rise of the
nation state in the context of the 1848 revolutions, leading to the creation of national epics and national myths
for the various newly formed states. Pagan or folkloric
topics were also common in the Musical nationalism of
the period.

Most Arabic pagans became virtually extinct during

Muhammad's era by way of Islamization.[43][44][44] The
sacred months of the Arab pagans were the 1st, 7th, 5 Modern Paganism
11th and 12th months of the Islamic calendar.[45] After
Muhammad had conquered Mecca he set out to convert Main article: Modern Paganism
the pagans.[46][47][48] One of the last military campaigns
Modern Paganism, or Neopaganism, can include

Children standing with The Lady of Cornwall in a neopagan ceremony in England.

The hammer Mjlnir is one of the primary symbols of Germanic

neopaganism.

There are a number of neopagan authors who have examined the relation of the 20th-century movements of polytheistic revival with historical polytheism on one hand
and contemporary traditions of folk religion on the other.
Isaac Bonewits introduced a terminology to make this
distinction,[64]
Neopagan handfasting ceremony at Avebury (Beltane 2005).

Paleopaganism A retronym coined to contrast with

"Neopaganism", original polytheistic, naturecentered faiths, such as the pre-Hellenistic Greek
reconstructed religions such as the Cultus Deorum
and pre-imperial Roman religion, pre-Migration
Romanorum, Hellenic polytheism, Slavic neopaganperiod Germanic paganism as described by Tacitus,
ism (Rodnovery), Celtic reconstructionist paganism, or
or Celtic polytheism as described by Julius Caesar.
Germanic neopaganism, as well as modern eclectic traditions such as Wicca and its many oshoots, and Mesopaganism A group, which is, or has been, sigDiscordianism.
nicantly inuenced by monotheistic, dualistic, or
nontheistic worldviews, but has been able to mainHowever, there often exists a distinction or separation betain an independence of religious practices. This
tween some polytheistic Reconstructionists such as the
group includes aboriginal Americans as well as
Greek or Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionists of the
Australian aborigines, Viking Age Norse paganHellenismos religion and revivalist Neopagans like Wicism and New Age spirituality. Inuences include:
cans. The divide is over numerous issues such as; the
Spiritualism, and the many Afro-Diasporic faiths
importance of accurate orthopraxy according to ancient
like Haitian Vodou, Santera and Espiritu religion.
sources available, the use and concept of magic, which
Isaac Bonewits includes British Traditional Wicca
calendar to use and which holidays to observe, as well as
[60][61][62]
in this subdivision.
the use of the term pagan itself.
Many of the revivals, Wicca and Neo-druidism in par- Neopaganism A movement by modern people to reticular, have their roots in 19th century Romanticism and
vive nature-revering/living, pre-Christian religions
retain noticeable elements of occultism or theosophy that
or other nature-based spiritual paths, frequently also
were current then, setting them apart from historical rural
incorporating contemporary liberal values at odds
with ancient paganism. This denition may include
(paganus) folk religion. Most modern pagans, however,
groups such as Wicca, Neo-Druidism, satr, and
believe in the divine character of the natural world and
Slavic Rodnovery.
paganism is often described as an Earth religion.[63]

8 SEE ALSO

Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick in their A History of images. English Egyptologist Arthur Weigall argues
Pagan Europe (1995) classify pagan religions as charac- that the essential doctrines of Christianity have been
terized by the following traits:
inuenced by paganism, or European occultism.[77]
Polytheism: Pagan religions recognise a plurality of
divine beings, which may or may not be considered
aspects of an underlying unity (the soft and hard
polytheism distinction)

7 Ethnic religions of pre-Christian

Europe

"Nature-based": Pagan religions have a concept of Further information: Christianization

the divinity of Nature, which they view as a manifestation of the divine, not as the fallen creation
found in Dualistic cosmology.
"Sacred feminine": Pagan religions recognize the
female divine principle, identied as "the Goddess"
(as opposed to individual goddesses) beside or in
place of the male divine principle as expressed in
the Abrahamic God.[65]
In modern times, Heathen and Heathenry are increasingly used to refer to those branches of neopaganism inspired by the pre-Christian religions of the Germanic,
Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon peoples.[66]
In Iceland, the members of satrarflagi account for
Cuman statue, 11th century, Ukraine
0.4% of the total population,[67] which is just over a
thousand people. In Lithuania, many people practice
Romuva, a revived version of the pre-Christian religion
Albanian mythology
of that country. Lithuania was among the last areas of Eu Armenian mythology
rope to be Christianized. Odinism has been established
on a formal basis in Australia since at least the 1930s.[68]
Baltic mythology

5.1

Paganism in Arabia

Even after Muhammad had destroyed the pagan idol and

temple of Dhul Khalasa during the Demolition of Dhul
Khalasa military expedition,[53][56][57] the cult of Dhul
Khalasa was resurrected and worshipped in the region until 1815, when members of the Sunni Wahhabi movement
organised military campaigns to suppress remnants of pagan worship. The reconstructed idol was subsequently destroyed by gunre.[50]

Basque mythology
Celtic polytheism
Etruscan mythology
Finnic mythologies
Georgian mythology
Germanic paganism
Ancient Greek religion
Norse mythology

Christianity as Pagan

Christianity
is
an
Abrahamic,
monotheistic
religion.[69][70] It has been perceived at times as a
form of polytheism by Jews[71] because of the Christian
doctrine of the Trinity (which at rst glance might
suggest Tritheism,[72] ) or the celebration of religious
days originally signicant in pagan religions[73] and other
practices through a process described as baptizing[74]
or "Christianization". Even among Christians, similar
charges of idolatry have been levelled, especially by
Protestants,[75][76] towards the Roman Catholic and
Eastern churches for their veneration of the saints and

Religion in ancient Rome

Slavic paganism
Vainakh mythology

8 See also
Crypto-paganism
Animism
List of Pagans
Myth and ritual

References

Notes

[22] Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State, p. 5.

[23] Millar, A Greek Roman Empire, pp. 9798.
[24] Millar, A Greek Roman Empire, p. 98.

[1] Augustine, Divers. Quaest. 83.

[2] Davies, Owen (2011). Paganism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN
9780191620010.

[25] Harper, Douglas. heathen (n.)". The Online Etymology

Dictionary. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
[26] Cameron 2011, pp. 2627.

[3] 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.

[27] Davies 2011, Dening paganism.

[4] Lewis, James R. (2004). The Oxford Handbook of New

Religious Movements. Oxford University Press. p. 13.
ISBN 0-19-514986-6.

[29] Cameron 2011, pp. 27, 31.

[5] Hanegra, Wouter J. (1006). New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought.
Brill Academic Publishers. p. 84. ISBN 90-04-10696-0.

[31] Cameron 2011, p. 28.

[28] Cameron 2011, p. 26.

[30] Cameron 2011, p. 29.

[32] Davies 2011, Chapter 1: The ancient world.

[6] Cameron 2011, pp. 28, 30.

[33] Antonio Virgili, Culti misterici ed orientali a Pompei,

Roma, Gangemi, 2008

[7] Davies, Owen (2011). Paganism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN
9780191620010. p=1

[34] 'Hymn to Proserpine'

[8] Harper, Douglas. pagan (n.)". The Online Etymology

Dictionary. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
[9] Cameron 2011, pp. 1415.
[10] De Corona Militis XI.V
[11] Ante-Nicene Fathers III, De Corona XI
[12] Theodosius I, The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912
[13] The City of God. Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite
DVD, 2003.
[14] Orosius Histories 1. Prol. ui alieni a civitate dei..pagani
vocantur.
[15] C. Mohrmann, Vigiliae Christianae 6 (1952) 9; Oxford
English Dictionary, (online) 2nd Edition (1989)
[16] The OED instances Edward Gibbon's 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 Paganism.
[17] Eisenstadt, S.N., 1983, Transcendental Visions OtherWorldliness and Its Transformations: Some More Comments on L. Dumont. Religion13:117, at p. 3.
[18] Augustine, Confessions 1.14.23; Moatii, Translation, Migration, and Communication, p. 112.
[19] Cameron, Alan G.; Long, Jacqueline; Sherry, Lee (1993).
2: Synesius of Cyrene; VI: The Dion". Barbarians and
Politics at the Court of Arcadius. University of California
Press. pp. 6667. ISBN 9780520065505.
[20] Cameron 2011, pp. 1617.
[21] Simon Swain, Defending Hellenism: Philostratus, in
Honour of Apollonius, in Apologetics, p. 173.

[35] cf. the civil, natural and mythical theologies of Marcus

Terentius Varro
[36] A summary of the modern view is given in Robin Lane
Fox, Pagans and Christians 1989, pp. 31 .: The modern
emphasis on paganisms cult acts was also acknowledged
by pagans themselves. It shaped the way they tried and
tested Christians.
[37] E. Kessler, Dionysian Monotheism in Nea Paphos, Cyprus
two monotheistic religions, Dionysian and Christian, existed contemporaneously in Nea Paphos during the 4th
century C.E. [...] the particular iconography of Hermes
and Dionysos in the panel of the Epiphany of Dionysos
[...] represents the culmination of a Pagan iconographic
tradition in which an infant divinity is seated on the lap of
another divine gure; this Pagan motif was appropriated
by early Christian artists and developed into the standardized icon of the Virgin and Child. Thus the mosaic helps
to substantiate the existence of Pagan monotheism.
[38] Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 26. 1 2
[39] Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 2. 34a
[40] Wick, Peter (2004). Jesus gegen Dionysos? Ein Beitrag
zur Kontextualisierung des Johannesevangeliums. Biblica. Rome: Pontical Biblical Institute. 85 (2): 179
198. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
[41] Studies in Early Christology, by Martin Hengel, 2005,
p.331 (ISBN 0567042804)
[42] Powell, Barry B., Classical Myth Second ed. With new
translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe. Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1998.
[43] Mubarakpuri, Saifur Rahman Al (2005), The sealed nectar: biography of the Noble Prophet, Darussalam Publications, pp. 245246, ISBN 978-9960-899-55-8

[44] Muhammad Saed Abdul-Rahman, Tafsir Ibn Kathir Juz'

2 (Part 2): Al-Baqarah 142 to Al-Baqarah 252 2nd Edition, p. 139, MSA Publication Limited, 2009, ISBN
1861796765. (online)
[45] Mubarakpuri, The Sealed Nectar (Free Version), p. 129
[46] Sa'd, Ibn (1967). Kitab al-tabaqat al-kabir,By Ibn
Sa'd,Volume 2. Pakistan Historical Society. p. 380.
ASIN B0007JAWMK.
[47] Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, Saifur (2005), The Sealed Nectar, Darussalam Publications, p. 269
[48] Mufti, M. Mukarram Ahmed (Dec 2007), Encyclopaedia
of Islam, Anmol Publications Pvt Ltd, p. 103, ISBN 97881-261-2339-1
[49] Robertson Smith, William (2010). Kinship and Marriage
in Early Arabia. Forgotten Books. p. 297. ISBN 978-14400-8379-2.
[50] S. Salibi, Kamal (2007). Who Was Jesus?: Conspiracy in
Jerusalem. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. p. 146. ISBN 9781-8451-1314-8.
[51] Muir, William (August 1878). The life of Mahomet.
Kessinger Publishing. p. 219.
[52] Mubarakpuri, Saifur Rahman Al (2002). When the Moon
Split. DarusSalam. p. 296. ISBN 978-9960-897-28-8.
[53] Glasse, Cyril (28 Jan 2003). The new encyclopedia of Islam. US: AltaMira Press. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-75910190-6.
[54] Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:59:641
[55] Dermenghem, mile (1930). The life of Mahomet. G.
Routledge. p. 239. ISBN 978-9960-897-71-4. Five
hundred horsemen went to Dhul Khalasa to demolish the
Yemenite Ka'ba

REFERENCES

[63] Pagan beliefs: nature, druids and witches. BBC Religion

& Ethics. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
[64] Dening Paganism: Paleo-, Meso-, and Neo-"(Version
2.5.1) 1979, 2007 c.e., Isaac Bonewits
[65] Jones, Prudence; Pennick, Nigel (1995). A History of Pagan Europe. Page 2. Routledge.
[66] Paganism: Heathenry. BBC Religions. Retrieved 25
March 2015.
[67] Statistics Iceland Statistics >> Population >> Religious
organisations
[68] The Odinic Rite of Australia. The Odinic Rite of Australia. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
[69] Christianitys status as monotheistic is armed in,
among other sources, the Catholic Encyclopedia (article "Monotheism"); William F. Albright, From the Stone
Age to Christianity; H. Richard Niebuhr; About.com,
Monotheistic Religion resources; Kirsch, God Against the
Gods; Woodhead, An Introduction to Christianity; The
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Monotheism; The New
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[70] Christianity. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 25
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[71] CHRISTIANITY IN ITS RELATION TO JUDAISM JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
[72] Chapman, John (1912). Tritheists, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
[73] Christianised calendar
[74] The Pope, The Emperor and the Persian Leader

[56] Ibn al Kalbi, Hisham (1952). The book of idols: being a

translation from the Arabic of the Kitb al-asnm. Princeton University Press. pp. 312. ASIN B002G9N1NQ.

[75] 'Philip Melanchthon 'Apologia Confessionis Augustanae'

[57] The Book of Idols, Scribd.

[77] Paganism in Our Christianity, by Arthur Weigall

[58] It would be a great pleasure to make the comparison with

what survives to us of ancient paganism in our old books,
in order to have better [grasped] their spirit. Peter N.
Miller, History of Religion Becomes Ethnology: Some Evidence from Peirescs Africa Journal of the History of Ideas
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[61] Pagans. Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes. Retrieved September 7, 2007.
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[76] Jean Seznec The Survival of the Pagan Gods

Bibliography
Cameron, Alan G. (2011). The Last Pagans of
Rome. New York, New York: Oxford University
Press. ISBN 9780199780914. OCLC 553365192.
Davies, Owen (2011). Paganism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 9780191620010.
Hua, Yih-Fen. book review to: Maria Enger /
Cornelia Logemann / Ulrich Psterer (eds): Gtterbilder und Gtzendiener in der Frhen Neuzeit.
Europas Blick auf fremde Religionen. In: sehepunkte 13 (2013), Nr. 5 [15.05.2013], URL: http:
//www.sehepunkte.de/2013/05/21410.html. (Book
review in English).

9
Robert, P. & Scott, N., (1995) "A History of Pagan
Europe". New York, Barnes & Noble Books, ISBN
0-7607-1210-7.
York, Michael Pagan Theology: Paganism as a
World Religion NYU Press (2003), ISBN 0-81479708-3.

10

External links

The dictionary denition of heathen at Wiktionary

Quotations related to Paganism at Wikiquote

10

11

11
11.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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Text

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11.2

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