Christians..please in your words explain exactly what the word Pagan means?

Answer 1

I generally associate Paganism with certain nature-based religions (the various sects of Wicca, Druidry, and so forth) and/or some of the reconstructionist religions (although, in my experience, some people practicing reconstructionist religions would rather be called Heathen than Pagan). Some people say that Paganism encompasses anything that's not one of the primary Abrahamic religions (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity), but I'm not sure if I would personally care to classify Buddhists and Hindus as Pagans. As I said, when I hear the term "Pagan", I tend to think more of religions such as Wicca.

Answer 2

There is general agreement that the word "Pagan" comes from the Latin word "paganus." Unfortunately, there is no consensus on the precise meaning of the word in the fifth century CE and before. There are three main interpretations. None has won general acceptance:

Most modern Pagan sources interpret the word to have meant "rustic," "hick," or "country bumpkin" -- a pejorative term. The implication was that Christians used the term to ridicule country folk who tenaciously held on to what the Christians considered old-fashioned, outmoded Pagan beliefs. Those in the country were much slower in adopting the new religion of Christianity than were the city folks. They still followed the Greek state religion, Roman state religion, Mithraism, various mystery religions, etc., long after those in urban areas had converted.


Some believe that in the early Roman Empire, "paganus" came to mean "civilian" as opposed to "military." Christians often called themselves "miles Christi" (Soldiers of Christ). The non-Christians became "pagani" -- non-soldiers or civilians. No denigration would be implied.


C. Mohrmann suggests that the general meaning was any "outsider," -- a neutral term -- and that the other meanings, "civilian" and "hick," were merely specialized uses of the term.

Answer 3

During the Hahn Dynasty in 1200 BC, Emperor Hahn was infamous for his terrible temper. He would have temples constructed in his honor, only to have them completely torn down after years of work because he wouldn't like one small piece. These temples were call Pagadiskus. As early European merchants and traders traveled the world, they would often visit China for silks and spices. They heard stories of the terrible Emperor Hahn and they saw the rubble from the remains of these torn-down Pagadiskus. Now to a Chinese person, the Emperor is a Deity. They worshiped him, either out of love, fear, or both. The destruction of these Pagadiskus, where many Chinese gathered to worship the Emperor, caused a lot of followers of the Emperor to revolt. As time has translated the word, Pagan derives from the Latin work Pagate, which stemmed from the Chinese word Pagadisku. It refers to anything that distracts one from their religious beliefs.

Answer 4

While the origin of the term is often traced to the Latin "paganus", the original meaning is often debated.

In current modern use, "pagan" means one who is a part of a (reconstructed) polytheistic ("many gods") religion, often of European origin, or a newer religion loosely based on old pre-Christian polytheism or perceived pre-Christian European "nature worship". It's also often used to refer to modern New Age "crazy quilt" spirituality where, say, one may honour Chinese Gods as concepts and incorporate Aboriginal Australian tribal practises to honour these "concepts" rather than Gods.

The includes Hellenismos (Greek polytheism), Asatru (Norse polytheism), Paganacht (Irish Keltic polytheism), Wicca (a new religion created in the UK in the early 1950s, incorporates some of what was known of ancient British polytheism at that time), and other paths.

"Pagan" is rarely used in describing Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Ba'hai, Shinto, Chinese polytheism and other "Eastern" practises. It's only occasionally used to refer to Aboriginal Australian and tribal North Amerikan spiritual and religious practises by scholars of world religions. The ultimate point in trying to determine which religions are "pagan" and which ones are not is knowledge of which religions were specifically attacked by Christian missionaries and almost completely succeeded in eradicating -- Christians were only about 50% successful in converting Native Amerikans/First Nations Canadians and Aboriginal Ozzies. Christians also haven't really been all that successful in mass-conversions of Hindus and Buddhists and Shintoists. Chairman Mao had better luck in abolishing the Chinese religion than Christian missionaries ever could.

By a far margin, and for a few possible reasons, the term "pagan" belongs near-exclusively to ancient European polytheism, its modern reconstructions, and newer religions based on or inspired by such.

Answer 5

I used to think pagan worship meant devil worshipping! Honest and when I asked hubby a while back, that's what he said. So being on here has educated me. The way I understand it is they are basically nature worshippers, but don't believe in Christian's God as their creator. They perform a lot of ritualistic ceremonies to attain what they want or need in their lives or to just give thanks? Am I close? Maybe someone can give a good website explaining it better.

Answer 6

This is just like asking for a definition of the word "Yankee." The answer depends on who you ask:

To someone from Europe, it's anyone from the USA.
To someone from the USA, it's anyone from the north.
To someone from the north, it's anyone from New England.
To someone from New England, it's anyone from from Maine.
To someone from Maine, it's anyone from some little backwoods village in the far north corner of the state.

Answer 7

Atheist chimes in (sorry but I am anyway)

Pagans and heathens are any one that don't follow your religion. So Buddhists are pagan from the Christian point of view.

Strangely, the Pagan religion, is not really pagan, at least not from this definition, and very likely not from religions that were classified as pagan.

Answer 8

First off I don't know why you would ask a christian what the definition of another religion was. How in the h*ll would they know anything about it.
The word pagan is very old and means peasant.
grim black is also right in his definition.
If you want the truth about paganism then you should ask pagans.

Answer 9

A person who follows a polytheistic religion, not belonging to any of the major world religions, not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam

Answer 10

the definition of "pagan" is a person who doesnt follow one of the world's main religions...from my personal view point/understanding, it's someone who kind of gathers up his/her own thoughts on God and everything, taken from a few different religions.

when you think of the word "pagan", it sounds like a bad thing. or a bad word. but its not, its just hard to describe a person who doesnt reallly have a "religion" persay...except for, they do. hmm. this is a tough one.


haha, hope that helped some. :)