A modern form of Paganism, adapted to the beliefs and mores of the 20th century. The term \u201cpagan\u201d comes from an Ancient Roman word for a civilian or villager, \u201cpaganus\u201d as opposed to \u201cmiles,\u201d a soldier. After the Roman emperor Constantine (274-338 C.E.) converted to Christianity, his soldiers came to the faith with him, leaving the civilians of the Empire to follow their diverse polytheistic religions. Thus, those of the Christian faith, from the third century onwards, labeled every practice and belief system that was not based on the worship of a single God, as was their own, \u201cpagan.\u201d Those of the Jewish faith, and later, in the early seventh century, those of the Islamic faith, were spared the label that by then had come to have a pejorative connotation.<\/p>\n
As in paganism of the past, the term \u201cNeopaganism\u201d covers a whole variety of belief systems. But today, probably because those in mainstream religions are more tolerant, those outside have managed to take what was once a derogative name, with all kinds of supposed negative implications like \u201cunenlightened\u201d or \u201cfollowers of false gods,\u201d and turn their beliefs into a positive philosophy encompassing many new age movement social, political, and economic concerns. Neopaganists have gone back nearly 2,000 years and adopted the original meaning of the word \u201cpaganus\u201d one of the people and not a soldier who was then a representative of the Roman ruling hierarchy. Some Neopagan groups are against hierarchies in any form, but most are especially against hierarchies as used in the established churches, with their ecclesiastical orders of priests, bishops, cardinals, etcetera. The whole system, they feel, is elite and patriarchal, reeking of male power, that has done its best over the centuries to marginalize all ancient pagan beliefs. In neopaganism \u201che\u201d and \u201cshe\u201d are equal, not identical, and have equal standing in its ceremonies.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A modern form of Paganism, adapted to the beliefs and mores of the 20th century. The term \u201cpagan\u201d comes from an Ancient Roman word for a civilian or villager, \u201cpaganus\u201d as opposed to \u201cmiles,\u201d a soldier. After the Roman emperor Constantine (274-338 C.E.) converted to Christianity, his soldiers came to the faith with him, leaving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-n"],"yoast_head":"\n