The question of whether paganism has charted a straight course for Christianity can be viewed from two angles. From the point of view of pure history, no one will deny that the aspirations and ideals at or around him have formed a valuable præparatio evangelica. “Christo jam tum venienti,” sang Prudentius, “crede, parata via est.” The pagan world “saw the road,” Augustine could say, from its hill. “And ipse Pileatus Christianus est,” said the priest of Attis; while Justin claims of Heraclitus and the ancient philosophers that they were Christians before Christ. Indeed, in their praise of Platonic philosophy, the early apologists go far beyond anything we want to say, and indeed caused difficulties for their successors. Today, attention is directed not only to the ideas of the divine nature, the philosophies of the Logos that were popular in Christian times, but above all to those Eastern cults which, when they poured out on the shriveled, official and dying cult of the Roman or Helleno-Roman world, fertilized all the possibilities it still contained, of purity, of prayer, emotional religion, the afterlife in general. A completely new religious language was developed, symbolizing a new trend, a new ideal and a new attitude; Again, Christianity did not despise use, transcendence, and transformation. In the Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire of the newly Christianized Roman Empire, Koine Greek was associated with the traditional polytheistic religion of ancient Greece and considered a foreign language (lingua peregrina) in the West. [25] In the second half of the 4th century. Paradoxically, the Greek-speaking pagans of the Eastern Empire were most often called Hellenes (Ἕλληνες, lit.

“Greeks”). The word was almost no longer used in the cultural sense. [26] [27] He retained this importance for about the first millennium of Christianity. Paganism (from the classical Latin pāgānus “rural”, “rustic”, later “civil”) is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians to refer to peoples of the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism[1] or ethnic religions other than Judaism. At the time of the Roman Empire, individuals fell into the pagan class, either because they were increasingly rural and provincial in relation to the Christian population, or because they were not milites Christi (soldiers of Christ). [2] [3] The alternative terms in Christian texts were Hellenic, pagan and pagan. [1] Ritual sacrifices were an integral part of the ancient Greco-Roman religion[4] and were considered an indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian. [4] Paganism has largely referred to the “religion of the peasantry.” [1] [5] A traveler usually feels as safe in a highly civilized pagan community as in a Christian city.

Heathen comes from Old English hæðen (not Christian or Jewish); cf. Old Norse Heiðinn. This meaning of the term comes from the Gothic haiþno (pagan woman) used in the Wulfila Bible, the first translation of the Bible into a Germanic language, to translate Hellenic.[32] This may have been influenced by the Greek and Latin terminology of the time used for pagans. If so, it may be derived from the Gothic haiþi (dwelling on the moor). However, this has not been proven. It could even be a borrowing from the Greek ἔθνος (ethnos) via the Armenian hethanos. [33] The 19th century also saw great scientific interest in reconstructing pagan mythology from folklore or fairy tales. This was tried in particular by the Brothers Grimm, especially Jacob Grimm in his German mythology, and Elias Lönnrot with the compilation of the Kalevala. The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, inspired them to collect fairy tales, and led them to the same belief that a country`s fairy tales were particularly representative of it, neglecting intercultural influence.

Among those who were influenced were the Russian Alexander Afanasyev, the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe and the Englishman Joseph Jacobs. [72] And also the Easter Bunny, a bizarre pagan myth, if ever there was one. I am a simple old pagan, and I am not at all angry with you – you merry little champion of the Most High. It is perhaps misleading to say that at the beginning of [our era] there was such a religion as paganism. It may be less confusing to say that before their competition with Christianity, pagans had no religion at all in the sense that this word is usually used today. They had no tradition of discourse on ritual or religious matters (outside of philosophical debates or ancient treatises), no organized belief system to which they had to engage, no authority structure specific to the religious domain, and especially no commitment to a particular group of people or ideas other than their family and political context. If this is the correct view of pagan life, it follows that we should simply view paganism as a religion invented in the second and third centuries of our era in competition and interaction with Christians, Jews and others. Interest in pagan traditions was first revived in the Renaissance, when Renaissance magic was practiced as a revival of Greco-Roman magic. In the 17th century, the description of paganism shifted from a theological aspect to an ethnological aspect, and religions began to be understood as part of the ethnic identities of peoples, and the study of the religions of the so-called primitive peoples raised questions about the ultimate historical origin of religion.