"Contemporary Pagans feel a strong connection to the past and look to those pre-Christian practices and cultures and spirituality as inspiration for what they're trying to recover, find again or create anew," says Calico. What Modern Pagans are definitely not is "historical reenactors," says Jefferson Calico, a religion professor at the University of the Cumberlands, Kentucky, and author of " Being Viking: Heathenism in Contemporary America." The religious scholar Michael Strmiska described Modern Paganism as a collection of religious movements "dedicated to reviving the polytheistic, nature-worshipping pagan religions of pre-Christian Europe and adapting them for the use of people in modern societies." With such a diversity of religious traditions and rituals, Modern Paganism defies easy definition. Modern Paganism (also called Neopaganism, Contemporary Paganism or just Paganism) is a revival movement that encompasses a wide and rich variety of polytheistic religious traditions: Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman practices, as well as Wicca (modern witchcraft), Ásatrú (the worship of Norse gods, goddesses and land spirits) and Druidism (an Indo-European priesthood). In 2008, there were just 340,000 Pagans in the U.S. According to the 2014 Pew Religious Landscape Study, 0.3 percent of Americans identify as "Pagan or Wicca," which is the same number who identify as Unitarian. By some measures, Modern Paganism is one of America's fastest-growing religions with an estimated 1 million followers of various Pagan sects in the United States. While most of the rites and practices of Pagan belief systems died out centuries ago, some modern spiritual seekers have recovered those ancient wisdom traditions and now proudly identify as Pagan. They called them "pagans" from the Latin word paganus for "country dweller." When Christianity switched from a persecuted fringe sect to the state religion of the Roman Empire in 415 CE, those in the new monotheistic mainstream came up with an insult for the polytheistic "hicks" who still worshipped the pantheon of Roman gods. 13, 2020 in Jacarepagua, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jussara Gabriel a Wiccan high priestess, and other priestesses pray around a fire pit during the Imbolc, the seasonal sabbat in honor of Brigid, a Celtic goddess of Irish origin, on Aug.
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