Paganism is a broad term to describe?

Question

Paganism is a broad term to describe reglions that arent.... Christian, Judisem, and.........._________? it was in the book BEOWULF, if anyone read it.

any help would be great!

Answer 1

Lots of people have read Beowulf. It is a Medieval Saxon epic poem.

Yes, paganism can be used to describe religions which are not part of the Judaism-Chrisitianity-Islam family of religions.

Answer 2

"3. an irreligious or hedonistic person."

What?! I'd love to know what dictionary was used for this definition.

In fact, the original definition of the word was, "village dweller."

Paganism is a set of polytheist beliefs that just about every society had prior to the advent of Judaism and Christianity. Gerald Gardner called it the "Old Religion" and if you take a close look, all the monotheistic religions borrowed heavily from pagan beliefs.

Pagans are spiritual people - not irreligious. They are only hedonistic to the extent that anyone would be hedonistic. Meaning, it has nothing to do with the set of beliefs and everything to do with the individual.

Answer 3

Pagan means:
1. one of a people or community observing a polytheistic religion, as the ancient Romans and Greeks.
2. a person who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim.
3. an irreligious or hedonistic person.

ADDED because of the response post below:
Mind you that by posting this I am not agreeing with number three. I'm simply repeating what was in the dictionary. This is the dictionary definition from dictionary.com (listed in the source below). I'm pagan myself so I would never accuse my brethren of being irreligious or hedonistic.

But - It was my understanding that at some point - pagan meant heathen or was used to mean heathen and that's where this third definition could come from? I could be wrong.