Tradition
Modern paganism
Overview
Modern paganism, also known as neopaganism and contemporary paganism, is a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the indigenous beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some common similarities, contemporary pagan movements are diverse, sharing no single set of beliefs, practices, or religious texts. Scholars of religion may study the phenomenon as a movement divided into different religions, while others study neopaganism as a decentralized religion with an array of denominations.
Adherents rely on pre-Christian, folkloric, and ethnographic sources to a variety of degrees; many of them follow a spirituality that they accept as entirely modern, while others draw on prehistoric beliefs or attempt to revive indigenous religions as accurately as possible. Modern pagan movements are frequently described on a spectrum ranging from reconstructive, which seeks to revive historical pagan religions, to eclectic movements, which blend elements from various religions and philosophies with historical paganism. Polytheism, animism, and pantheism are common features across pagan theology. Modern pagans can also include atheists, upholding virtues and principles associated with paganism while maintaining a secular worldview. Humanistic, naturalistic, or secular pagans may recognize deities as archetypes or useful metaphors for different cycles of life, or reframe magic as a purely psychological practice.
Contemporary paganism has been associated with the New Age movement, with scholars highlighting their similarities as well as their differences. The academic field of pagan studies began to coalesce in the 1990s, emerging from disparate scholarship in the preceding two decades.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
I will write these traits down in two columns. I think you will practically recognize the two types of mental make-up that I mean if I head the columns by the titles 'tender-minded' and 'tough-minded' respectively. Rationalistic (going by 'principles'), Intellectualistic, Idealistic, Optimistic, Religious, Free-willist, Monistic, Dogmatical.
William James, Pragmatism
States what Modern paganism is; the author is tied to Modern paganism in the knowledge graph.
All known religious beliefs, whether simple or complex, present one common characteristic: they presuppose a classification of all the things, real and ideal, of which men think, into two classes or opposed groups, generally designated by two distinct terms which are translated well enough by the words _profane_ and _sacred_ (_profane_, _sacré_). This division of the world into two domains, the one containing all…
Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
States what Modern paganism is.
All this is on the supposition that it really may be prophetic and right, and that, even to us who are discussing the matter, religion is a live hypothesis which may be true. Now, to most of us religion comes in a still further way that makes a veto on our active faith even more illogical. The more perfect and more eternal aspect of the universe is represented in our religions as having personal form.
William James, The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
The author is tied to Modern paganism in the knowledge graph.
Related ideas
- Manchester University Press
- Ancient Egyptian religion
- Heinrich Heine
- Ethnicity
- Antisemitism
- Fascism
- Jungian archetypes
- French Revolution
- Freemasonry
- Folklore
- Athena
- Athens
- Gender equality
- Hinduism
- Hindus
- Abrahamic religions
- History of religion
- Animism
- Counterculture
- Iceland
- Indian religions
- Elitism
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Atheism
Place in the tradition
Part of Animism.