Pagan Studies
Pagan studies is the multidisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of modern paganism, a broad assortment of modern religious movements, which are typically influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of premodern Europe. Carpenter 1996. p. 40. Pagan studies embrace a variety of different scholarly approaches to studying such religions, drawing from history, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, folkloristics, theology and other religious studies. Background The earliest academic studies of contemporary paganism were published between 1970 and 1980 by scholars like Margot Adler, Marcello Truzzi and Tanya Luhrmann, although it would not be until the 1990s that the actual pagan studies discipline properly developed, pioneered by academics such as Graham Harvey and Chas S. Clifton. Increasing academic interest in Paganism has been attributed to the new religious movement's increasing public visibility, as it began interacting with the interfaith ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Modern Paganism
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the Paganism, 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. Religious studies, 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 Religious denomination, denominations. Adherents rely on Christianization, 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 claim to adhere to Prehistoric religion, prehistoric beliefs, or else, they attempt to revive indigenous religions as accurately as possible. List of modern pagan movements, Modern pagan movements are ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones, held in place with mortise and tenon joints, a feature unique among contemporary monuments. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. The stones are set within Earthwork (archaeology), earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic British Isles, Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred ''tumuli'' (burial mounds). Stonehenge was constructed in several phases beginning about 3100 BC and continuing until about 1600 B ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Western Esotericism
Western esotericism, also known as the Western mystery tradition, is a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas and currents are united since they are largely distinct both from orthodox Judeo-Christian, Judeo-Christian religion and Age of Enlightenment rationalism. It has influenced, or contributed to, various forms of Western philosophy, mysticism, Western religions, religion, science, pseudoscience, Western art history, art, Western literature, literature, and Western culture#Music, music. The idea of grouping a wide range of Western traditions and philosophies together under the term ''esotericism'' developed in 17th-century Europe. Various academics have debated numerous definitions of Western esotericism. One view adopts a definition from certain esotericist schools of thought themselves, treating "esotericism" as a perennial philosophy, perennial hidden inner tradition. A second perspective sees esotericism as a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shamanism
Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world for the purpose of healing, divination, or to aid human beings in some other way. Beliefs and practices categorized as shamanic have attracted the interest of scholars from a variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, archeologists, historians, religious studies scholars, philosophers, and psychologists. Hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peer-reviewed academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism. Terminology Etymology The Modern English word ''shamanism'' derives from the Russian word , , which itself comes from the word from a Tungusic language – possibly from the southwestern dialect of the Evenki spoken by the Sym Evenki peoples, or from the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lake District
The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mountains, and for its literary associations with Beatrix Potter, John Ruskin, and the Lake Poets. The Lakeland fells, or mountains, include England's List of P600 mountains in the British Isles, highest: Scafell Pike (), Helvellyn () and Skiddaw (). The region also contains sixteen major lakes. They include Windermere, which with a length of and an area of is the longest and largest lake in England, and Wast Water, which at is the deepest lake in England. The Lake District National Park was established in 1951, and covers an area of , the bulk of the region. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017. National Park The Lake District National Park includes all of the central Lake District, though the town of Kendal, some c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ambleside
Ambleside is a town in the civil parish of Lakes and the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Westmorland and located in the Lake District National Park, the town sits at the head of Windermere, England's largest natural lake. In 2022 the built up area had an estimated population of 2,586. History The town's name is derived from the Old Norse "''Á-mel-sǽtr"'' which literally translates as "river – sandbank – summer pasture". On the southern edge of Ambleside is the Roman fort of Galava, dating from AD 79. In 1650 the town was granted a charter to hold a market. In the reign of James II, another charter was granted for the town to collect tolls. The town's Market Place became the commercial centre for agriculture and the wool trade. The old packhorse trail between Ambleside and Grasmere was the main route between the two towns before the new turnpike road was completed in 1770. Smithy Brow at the end ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael York (religious Studies Scholar)
Michael York is an American religious studies scholar, based in the United Kingdom, who specializes in the study of pre-Christian European religion and its relation to contemporary Paganism. In 2003, he published '' Pagan Theology'', in which he put forward the idea that the ancient pre-Christian and pre-Islamic religions of Eurasia, indigenous religions from across the globe, and contemporary Pagan faiths could all be constituted as forms of paganism Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the .... Michael York participated in TEDxLambeth 2019 as a speaker. Education Career Personal life Describing his own religious beliefs and his affection for paganism, York remarked that: Bibliography Books References Works cited * {{DEFAULTSORT:York, Michael Pagan studies ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Interfaith Dialogue
Interfaith dialogue, also known as interreligious dialogue, refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religion, religious traditions (i.e. "faiths") and/or spirituality, spiritual or humanism, humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels. Throughout the world there are local, regional, national and international interfaith initiatives; many are formally or informally linked and constitute larger networks or federations. These include organisations such as the United Religions Initiative, the Parliament of the World's Religions, and interfaith training institutions like OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation in the United Kingdom, which since 1996 has prepared interfaith ministers for community service, spiritual accompaniment, and inclusive ceremony. The often quoted statement "There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue am ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Religious Movements
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin, or they can be part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations. Some NRMs deal with the challenges that the modernizing world poses to them by embracing individualism, while other NRMs deal with them by embracing tightly knit collective means. Scholars have estimated that NRMs number in the tens of thousands worldwide. Most NRMs only have a few members, some of them have thousands of members, and a few of them have more than a million members.Eileen Barker, 1999, "New Religious Movements: their incidence and significance", ''New Religious Movements: challenge and response'', Bryan Wilson and Jamie Cresswell editors, Routledge There is no single, agreed-upon criterion for defining a "new religious movement". Debate continues as t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Pomegranate (journal)
''The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies'' is a peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of Pagan studies including historical, sociological, and anthropological studies dealing with Paganism (contemporary), contemporary Paganism and other forms of paganism, pagan religion. Since 2004 the journal has been published by Equinox Publishing (London), Equinox Publishing and the editor-in-chief is Chas S. Clifton (Colorado State University–Pueblo). The journal was established as a scholarly but not fully peer-reviewed publication in 1996 by Fritz Muntean and Diana Tracy with the subtitle ''A New Journal of Neopagan Thought''. In 2001 the production of the journal was put on hiatus, as Muntean stepped down as editor, to be replaced by Clifton when it resumed publication, this time as a fully peer-reviewed academic publication and with its current subtitle. History The idea for ''The Pomegranate'' was initially developed by Fritz Muntean, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Academic Journal
An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the dissemination, scrutiny, and discussion of research. Unlike professional magazines or Trade magazine, trade magazines, the articles are mostly written by researchers rather than staff writers employed by the journal. They nearly universally require peer review for Research Article, research articles or other scrutiny from contemporaries competent and established in their respective fields. Academic journals trace their origins back to the 17th century. , it is estimated that over 28,100 active academic journals are in publication, with scopes ranging from the general sciences, as seen in journals like ''Science (journal), Science'' and ''Nature (journal), Nature'', to highly specialized fields. These journals publish a variety of articles ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |