Contemporary Pagan, Wiccan, and Native Faith Movements
Contemporary Pagan, Wiccan, and Native Faith Movements
- Chas S. CliftonChas S. CliftonColorado State University-Pueblo
Summary
Paganism is based largely in an Enlightenment-era rejection of Christianity and Romantic-era ideas of the individual experience, emotion, and creativity, combined with a search for true ethnic culture in the lore and practices of the pre-Christian past and a rejection of universal transcendental religion, in favor of the local, the particular, the polytheistic, and the animist. Particularly in the United States, Pagans have challenged governmental accommodations for existing religions by demanding equal status in public spaces. Contemporary Pagan groups began forming in the 1930s, but the largest, Wicca, emerged in the United Kingdom in the early 1950s.
Keywords
Subjects
- Mysticism and Spirituality
- New Religions
