Name the old Religions

basically all non-christian or ewen just non-abrahamic religion that formed before the late 19th century are called pagan
olnly a few better known heresies have the privelege of being called by a name usually given them by the chatolic or ortodox mainstream of the day

there are a few exeptions such as the bogumils or the chatars, but generally ewen well known religions such as the norse or slavic are simply refered to as pagan

what names could be given to these religions?

did any of them really ansver to a specific name in OTL?
 
The problem with most of the pagan religions is that there was not one unified religion with a central hierarchy. It was a bunch of similar religions with some of the same gods, but not much else in common...

Maybe you could name each sect after its chief god?
 
well hinduism is fractioned into almoust a hundred sects, each with enough folowers and tradition to be considered a legitimate religion, and each with its own name

similarly the old slavs were divided into several religious "subgroups" each emfasising a certain god or difering in some way, having a slightly diferent pantheon or diferent cosmogony, but all were basically one religious tradition, even if there was no central authority, with more or less same customs and most of the same holidays, most of the same main gods, and basically compatible culture, much in the way orthodox churches are each autonomus jet all compatible one way or the other, exept on a national basis

so i think they can be put under one name, same as christianism is one name for a wide wariety of faiths

same would go for most pagan traditions

most diferences in slavic lore apeared during christianisation annyway, as slavic traditions evolved diferently depending on the level of christian influence
 

Keenir

Banned
basically all non-christian or ewen just non-abrahamic religion that formed before the late 19th century are called pagan
olnly a few better known heresies have the privelege of being called by a name usually given them by the chatolic or ortodox mainstream of the day

there are a few exeptions such as the bogumils or the chatars,

what names could be given to these religions?

Bogomils, Cathars, Passagians and the lot are all Christian.
 
I find Tengriism very fascinating. I just hope it makes a comeback, like other Neopagan Reconstructions. It must... It is the will of the Eternal Blue Sky.
 
I find Tengriism very fascinating. I just hope it makes a comeback, like other Neopagan Reconstructions. It must... It is the will of the Eternal Blue Sky.

IIRC Tengriism actually does survive in a few forms; there's still a few Turkic peoples in Siberia that were never converted to Islam or Christianity, and the religion of the Mongols and Buryats is basically Tengriism with a Buddhist overlay.

But I don't think that Tengriism (or any of the neopagan religions, for that matter) will ever become more than minor religious movements in this day and age...
 
I've heard Viking/Germanic religion referred to as Wotanism/Odinism after Wotan/Odin.

But this is a construction in lack of a unifying name.
It has also been related to as Asa-belief, but that is not to the point as Frey and Freja was older fertility gods and part of the Vanir. Asa was a later family of gods or rather pantheon of Gods like the Greek or Roman. And what are the names of those "religions"?

Problem is Christianity was rather good at exterminating older beliefs systems so that we at best have a scetchy idea of them.
 
no, not really, no they were not

Please, not this one again. Christian is not a scientifically definable concept. There are so many ways to disagree over who qualifies, I would only point out that there are groups - and not small ones - who hold that Catholics are not Christians. There's no point arguing one way or another. The Bogumils and Cathars certainly referred to themselves as Christians.

As to names for old religions, the name for them is religion. I have the distinct nonpleasure of reading Caesar at the moment (long story), and it is striking he refers to Gauls and Germans not as having *a* different religion, but as having different customs *regarding* religion. The worship according of Nehallenia, Elagabal, Dolichenos, Isis and Minerva were, to the ancients, not different religions, but different expressions of the phenomenon religion. There are words for people who *do* certain things (worship at certain temples, subject themselves to certain disciplines, aim for a certain goal), but not for people who *believe* a certain exclusive dogma. That concept is new, and in the Classical world the vocabulary for it develops in the 2nd and 3rd centuries based on political and philosophical usage (Christiani are followers of Christ by the same suffixation as Caesariani are followers of Julius Caesar).

A world that has words for different religions will not long have ancient religion. As we see in modern neopaganism and to an extent even in Hinduism and Shinto, the changes triggered by this paradigm shift tend to be massive. It is perfectly normal today to be 'a Wiccan and not an Asatruarmenn', but to the ancient practitioners of Celtic, Roman and Germanic religion, this statement would only have been a complicated way of saying 'a Gaul and not a German'.

BTW, the AFAIK only term for historical European paganism that was not coined by opposing forces is 'Asatruar', and it was created to distinguish themselves from Christians. Asatru is one of the few religious traditions in Europe that in fact does have an unbroken line of tradition to pre-Christian times.
 
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