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 Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:20 pm
Aakosir Chieftain Twilight Aakosir Chieftain Twilight i know that the word Pagan comes from the Latin root Paganus, which meant folk-religion, and reffered to all minority religions in the Roman Empire (which were typically countryside wytches, bt also included Christianity and Judaism before the rise of Christianity in the Dark Ages). since christianity then became the state religion of the empire, all non-christian religions were reffered to as Paganus. however, Pagan has taken on the meaning of specifically earth-based religions since then, except in the case of most christian churches, who continue to lable everyone not christian as Pagan, and reffering to that word as meaning satanic, devil-worship. heh. xd well, that sounds like a polite (or at least classy) way to call someone a redneck! i can see where the mistranslation could have come from. all the sources i had on that info were specifically Pagan media, and you know how religious folks can be. rolleyes thank you for the more precise translation. i think i'll go look it up in the new dictionary that came to the library yesterday. i had forgotten to do so. i understand how that goes.
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Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:27 pm
Chieftain Twilight Aakosir Chieftain Twilight Aakosir Chieftain Twilight i know that the word Pagan comes from the Latin root Paganus, which meant folk-religion, and reffered to all minority religions in the Roman Empire (which were typically countryside wytches, bt also included Christianity and Judaism before the rise of Christianity in the Dark Ages). since christianity then became the state religion of the empire, all non-christian religions were reffered to as Paganus. however, Pagan has taken on the meaning of specifically earth-based religions since then, except in the case of most christian churches, who continue to lable everyone not christian as Pagan, and reffering to that word as meaning satanic, devil-worship. heh. xd well, that sounds like a polite (or at least classy) way to call someone a redneck! i can see where the mistranslation could have come from. all the sources i had on that info were specifically Pagan media, and you know how religious folks can be. rolleyes thank you for the more precise translation. i think i'll go look it up in the new dictionary that came to the library yesterday. i had forgotten to do so. i understand how that goes.
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Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:49 pm
Aakosir Heathen is pretty much not believing in the Christian god. It has been used as an insult most of the time, but more people are calling themselves heathen because they are not Christian. I guess I would be one of them. I don't think that's right. Heathenheathen (not comparable) Positive heathen Comparative not comparable Superlative none (absolute) 1. not adhering to an Abrahamic religion; pagan. 2. (by extension) uncultured; uncivilized; savage, philistine. 3. pertaining to currents of Germanic neo-paganism known as Heathenry.Sansguina identifies herself as a heathen and Tea said that Heathen would be closer to describing her religion more than Pagan.
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Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:55 pm
rmcdra Aakosir Heathen is pretty much not believing in the Christian god. It has been used as an insult most of the time, but more people are calling themselves heathen because they are not Christian. I guess I would be one of them. I don't think that's right. Heathenheathen (not comparable) Positive heathen Comparative not comparable Superlative none (absolute) 1. not adhering to an Abrahamic religion; pagan. 2. (by extension) uncultured; uncivilized; savage, philistine. 3. pertaining to currents of Germanic neo-paganism known as Heathenry.Sansguina identifies herself as a heathen and Tea said that Heathen would be closer to describing her religion more than Pagan.
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Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:58 pm
xxEternallyBluexx Correct me if I'm wrong, but 'pagan' isn't always an insult, right? Right. There was one point in history where it was always an insult being equivalent to today's term of "redneck" or "hill billy". Today the word has pretty much been reclaimed. The old meaning still exists of course but a new meaning of being non-Abrahamic got tacked on. In a way this new meaning is consistent with the old definition in that most people outside of civilized society (Roman) weren't followers of the Abrahamic God so in way the negative connotation behind the word was has been dropped.
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Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 11:04 pm
Aakosir I really don't like Wikipedia and sadly I can't find my college dictionary. So what are their definitions of heathen? They are probably around here somewhere. Just found a BBC article on Heathenery. I'm waiting on a reply from Sans. Tea, well she's been gone for the past couple of months. Not sure where's she's at.
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Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 11:15 am
To all: Thank you so much! I now know the girls at school haven't a clue.
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Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 11:22 am
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Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:54 pm
Yes pagan meant a rustic or rurual dweller. Heathen pretty much had the same original meaning but was of a germanic/nordic origin (can't remember which on just now) instead of latin, which explained the negative connotations since the Romans and such tended to thing of the germanic and scandanavian tribes as barbarians.
When the the neo-pagan movement began to emerge, they used the term pagan because those rural rustics often retained aspects of the older religious traditions. Also, it had come to mean a non-Christian (non-Abrahamic) person and since the religions they were using were deffinately not Abrahamic based, it fit. When Norse/Germanic pagans started to show up, they used the term Heathen because it had pretty much the same traditional meaning as Pagan with a more northern origin.
Yes, the other meanings of both words still exists but the meanings are changing and when you are discussing various types of non-Abrahamic religions, Heathen and Pagan are appropriate terms to do so. Pagan is (in it's simplest form) a blanket term for non-Abrahamic religion. It can be more speficic to the attampts to ressurect the pre-Christian European and Medditeranean beliefs and religions. Heathen is a specific type of Pagan with a Scandinavian/Germanic focus. Like Catholic or Babtist are specific types of Christian.
This thread was a request for information on different types of religions. Not a semantics disscussion of the origins of the terms used to identify them.
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Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 3:10 pm
though you did yourself just jump on the bandwagon to basically summarize everything that had already been said. xd
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Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:44 pm
Rmc wanted clarification and elaboration on use of the term, which she gave. Thank you, Raven ^_^
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Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 7:33 pm
rmcdra Aakosir I really don't like Wikipedia and sadly I can't find my college dictionary. So what are their definitions of heathen? They are probably around here somewhere. Just found a BBC article on Heathenery. I'm waiting on a reply from Sans. Tea, well she's been gone for the past couple of months. Not sure where's she's at.
But I have a little bit of confusion with that. If they were pre-Christian, then how does Heathen mean godless now? I guess the christians just changed it, like modern words have been changes. Like faggott.... It's a bundle of sticks!
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Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 7:39 pm
Maybe another thread for this?
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Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 9:26 pm
Aakosir rmcdra Aakosir I really don't like Wikipedia and sadly I can't find my college dictionary. So what are their definitions of heathen? They are probably around here somewhere. Just found a BBC article on Heathenery. I'm waiting on a reply from Sans. Tea, well she's been gone for the past couple of months. Not sure where's she's at.
But I have a little bit of confusion with that. If they were pre-Christian, then how does Heathen mean godless now? I guess the christians just changed it, like modern words have been changes. Like faggott.... It's a bundle of sticks!Yeah probably. Seeing as Christianity for the most part is strictly monotheistic, since heathens worshiped different Gods, they worshiped false Gods, so since there was no other God than YHVH their theology, they word became equated with god-less
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