Paganism

Paganism is an umbrella term for the diverse polytheistic and nature-venerating religious traditions that Christian writers, from late antiquity onward, grouped together in contrast to their own Abrahamic faith. The term was originally an exonym applied by Christians to the varied local and civic cults of the Roman world and its neighbors, encompassing traditions with little in common beyond not adhering to Judaism, Christianity or Islam, so its historical meaning was never fixed or self-chosen by the peoples it described. In this atlas, the label is used for a member entity recorded generically as belonging to a pagan tradition rather than to one specific named pagan religion such as Norse Paganism, Celtic Paganism or Slavic Native Faith; this entity therefore represents the general concept and category rather than any single tradition within it. Modern paganism, a distinct twentieth and twenty-first century revival movement recorded separately in this atlas as Modern Paganism, borrowed the older label while creating largely new traditions rather than continuing the ancient ones directly.