Paganism

In early Christianity, paganism (from Latin: paganus, lit.'rustic') collectively referred to the diverse religious practices of all people who were polytheists. More specifically, it denoted anyone who did not adhere to an Abrahamic religion in the Roman Empire. The term pagan was an exonym used by Christians to distinguish themselves from those deemed outside their faith, and very few self-identified with the label. The origin of the term's application to polytheism is debated, as it lacked a static or consistent meaning among early Christians.

Deriving from a Latin term that variably denoted a country-dweller, peasant, or civilian, individuals fell into the pagan class either because they were increasingly rural and provincial compared to the urbanized Christian population or because they were not a soldier of Christ (miles Christi). In Christian thought, paganism broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry", in that traditional polytheism was believed or perceived to persist in rural areas. Terms synonymously used in Christian texts of the period include heathen, Hellene, and gentile. A strong indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian was their partaking in ritual sacrifice, which was an integral part of Greco-Roman religion.

During the Middle Ages, Christians generally applied the term "pagan" to any non-Christian group with the implication of belief in false gods; from the 15th to 19th centuries, the term pagan or heathen was used by Christian Europeans to describe a wide variety of non-Abrahamic religious beliefs encountered across the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. In the 19th century, paganism was adopted as a self-descriptor by members of various artistic groups inspired by the ancient world. In the 20th century, practitioners of modern paganism, modern pagan movements, and polytheistic reconstructionist increasingly self-identified as pagan. Modern pagan traditions often incorporate beliefs or practices (such as nature worship) that are different from those of the world's largest religions.

Contemporary knowledge of old pagan religions and beliefs comes from several sources, including anthropological field research, the evidence of archaeological artifacts, the philology of ancient language, and the historical accounts of ancient writers regarding cultures known to classical antiquity. Most modern pagan religions existing today express a worldview that is polytheistic, pantheistic, panentheistic, or animistic, but some are monotheistic.