Contemporary Paganism

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Contemporary Paganism

Graham Harvey
Contemporary Paganism Book PDF

Author : Graham Harvey
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 275 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2011-02-07
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780814790618

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Contemporary Paganism by Graham Harvey Pdf

An introduction to modern Paganism and its roots and history The Pagan tradition celebrates the physical nature of life on earth, blending science with spiritual folklore. Considering the everyday world of food, health, sex, work, and leisure to be sacred, Pagans oppose that which threatens life such as deforestation, overdevelopment, and nuclear power and invoke ancient deities in this struggle for the well-being of the earth and its inhabitants. Contemporary Paganism presents a broad-based introduction to the main trends of contemporary Paganism, revealing the origins and practical aspects of Druidry, Witchcraft, Goddess Spirituality and Magic, Shamanism, and Geomancy, among others. Making use of both traditional history and the movement’s more imaginative sources, Harvey reveals how Paganism and its central focus on individual and social lives is evolving and how this “new religion” perceives and relates to more traditional ones. This updated and expanded new edition addresses recent developments among Pagans and includes a new chapter assessing continuing scholarly research about the religion.

Handbook of Contemporary Paganism

Murphy Pizza,James R. Lewis
Handbook of Contemporary Paganism Book PDF

Author : Murphy Pizza,James R. Lewis
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 661 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004163737

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Handbook of Contemporary Paganism by Murphy Pizza,James R. Lewis Pdf

Contemporary Paganism is a movement that is still young and establishing its identity and place on the global religious landscape. The members of the movement are simultaneously growing, unifying, and maintaining its characteristic diversity of traditions, identities, and rituals. The modern Pagan movement has had a restless formation period but has also been the catalyst for some of the most innovative religious expressions, praxis, theologies, and communities. As Contemporary Paganism continues to grow and mature, new angles of inquiry about it have emerged and are explored in this collection. This examination and study of contemporary Paganism contributes new ways to observe and examine other religions, where innovations, paradoxes, and inconsistencies can be more accurately documented and explained.

Contemporary Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Europe

Kathryn Rountree
Contemporary Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Europe Book PDF

Author : Kathryn Rountree
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2015-06-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781782386476

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Contemporary Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Europe by Kathryn Rountree Pdf

Pagan and Native Faith movements have sprung up across Europe in recent decades, yet little has been published about them compared with their British and American counterparts. Though all such movements valorize human relationships with nature and embrace polytheistic cosmologies, practitioners’ beliefs, practices, goals, and agendas are diverse. Often side by side are groups trying to reconstruct ancient religions motivated by ethnonationalism—especially in post-Soviet societies—and others attracted by imported traditions, such as Wicca, Druidry, Goddess Spirituality, and Core Shamanism. Drawing on ethnographic cases, contributors explore the interplay of neo-nationalistic and neo-colonialist impulses in contemporary Paganism, showing how these impulses play out, intersect, collide, and transform.

Modern Paganism in World Cultures

Michael Strmiska
Modern Paganism in World Cultures Book PDF

Author : Michael Strmiska
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 393 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2005-12-12
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781851096138

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Modern Paganism in World Cultures by Michael Strmiska Pdf

The most comprehensive study available of neo-pagan religious movements in North America and Europe. Modern Paganism in World Cultures collects the work of specialists in religion, folklore, and related fields to provide a comprehensive treatment of the movement to reestablish pre-Christian religions. Detailed accounts of the belief systems and rituals of each religion, along with analysis of the cultural, social, and political factors fueling the return to ancestral religious practice, make this a rich, singular resource. Scandinavian Asatru, Latvian Dievturi, American Wicca—long-dormant religions are taking on new life as people seek connection with their heritage and look for more satisfying approaches to the pressures of postmodernism. The Neopagan movement is a small but growing influence in Western culture. This book provides a map to these resurgent religions and an examination of the origins of the Neopagan movement.

Contemporary Paganism

C. Barner-Barry
Contemporary Paganism Book PDF

Author : C. Barner-Barry
Publisher : Springer
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2005-03-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781403973382

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Contemporary Paganism by C. Barner-Barry Pdf

This book explores the legal bias in the United States against Paganism and other non-Christian religions. Despite being one of the most religiously diverse countries in the world, the U.S. legal system developed when the population was predominantly Christian. Built into the law is the tacit assumption that all religions and religious practices resemble Christianity. Using the Pagans as a case study, Barner-Barry shows how their experiences demonstrate that both the law affecting nondominant religions and the judiciary that interprets this law are significantly biased in favor of the dominant religion, Christianity. This creates legal problems, as well as problems of intolerance, for religions with significantly different practices. Special attention is given to a series of Supreme Court decisions interpreting the Freedom of Religion Clause in terms of neutrality and interpreting the Establishment Clause loosely and its impact on nondominant religions in the US.

Solitary Pagans

Helen A. Berger
Solitary Pagans Book PDF

Author : Helen A. Berger
Publisher : Univ of South Carolina Press
Page : 203 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2019-08-12
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781643360102

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Solitary Pagans by Helen A. Berger Pdf

An exploration of the increasingly popular phenomenon of solitary practice within contemporary paganism Solitary Pagans is the first book to explore the growing phenomenon of contemporary Pagans who practice alone. Although the majority of Pagans in the United States have abandoned the tradition of practicing in groups, little is known about these individuals or their way of practice. Helen A. Berger fills that gap by building on a massive survey of contemporary practitioners. By examining the data, Berger describes solitary practitioners demographically and explores their spiritual practices, level of social engagement, and political activities. Contrasting the solitary Pagans with those who practice in groups and more generally with other non-Pagan Americans, she also compares contemporary U.S. Pagans with those in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. Berger brings to light the new face of contemporary paganism by analyzing those who learn about the religion from books or the Internet and conduct rituals alone in their gardens, the woods, or their homes. Some observers believe this social isolation and political withdrawal has resulted in an increase in narcissism and a decline in morality, while others argue to the contrary that it has produced a new form of social integration and political activity. Berger posits the implications of her findings to reveal a better understanding of other metaphysical religions and those who shun traditional religious organizations.

Crafting Contemporary Pagan Identities in a Catholic Society

Kathryn Rountree
Crafting Contemporary Pagan Identities in a Catholic Society Book PDF

Author : Kathryn Rountree
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 206 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2016-05-13
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317158684

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Crafting Contemporary Pagan Identities in a Catholic Society by Kathryn Rountree Pdf

Contemporary western Paganism is now a global religious phenomenon with Pagans in many parts of the world sharing much in common - from a nature-revering worldview and lifestyle to a host of chants, invocations, ritual tools and magical practices. But there are also locally-specific differences. Local religious contexts, landscapes, histories, traditions, politics, values and norms all impact on local Paganisms. This is nowhere more evident than in a strongly Catholic society, where religion and culture are deeply entwined. Taking the Mediterranean society of Malta as a case study, this book invites readers inside the world of a small, hidden sub-culture. Showing what it is like being Pagan in a society where the vast majority of the population is Roman Catholic, and Catholicism permeates every sphere of public and domestic, social and political life, Rountree reveals that Paganism here is a unique brew of indigenous and global influences. Pagans employ both creativity and borrowing in constructing identities within a cultural context characterized by antagonism as well as continuity. This book explores the intersections of religious and cultural identity, the global and local, Paganism and Christianity, with insights grounded in rich ethnographic detail based on long-term fieldwork. Rountree makes invaluable comparisons with other studies of modern Pagans and their various worlds.

A Community of Witches

Helen A. Berger
A Community of Witches Book PDF

Author : Helen A. Berger
Publisher : Univ of South Carolina Press
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2021-11-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781643362878

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A Community of Witches by Helen A. Berger Pdf

A Community of Witches explores the beliefs and practices of Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft—generally known to scholars and practitioners as Wicca. While the words "magic," "witchcraft," and "paganism" evoke images of the distant past and remote cultures, this book shows that Wicca has emerged as part of a new religious movement that reflects the era in which it developed. Imported to the United States in the later 1960s from the United Kingdom, the religion absorbed into its basic fabric the social concerns of the time: feminism, environmentalism, self-development, alternative spirituality, and mistrust of authority. Helen A. Berger's ten-year participant observation study of Neo-Pagans and Witches on the eastern seaboard of the United States and her collaboration on a national survey of Neo-Pagans form the basis for exploring the practices, structures, and transformation of this nascent religion. Responding to scholars who suggest that Neo-Paganism is merely a pseudo religion or a cultural movement because it lacks central authority and clear boundaries, Berger contends that Neo-Paganism has many of the characteristics that one would expect of a religion born in late modernity: the appropriation of rituals from other cultures, a view of the universe as a cosmic whole, an emphasis on creating and re-creating the self, an intertwining of the personal and the political, and a certain playfulness. Aided by the Internet, self-published journals, and festivals and other gatherings, today's Neo-Pagans communicate with one another about social issues as well as ritual practices and magical rites. This community of interest—along with the aging of the original participants and the growing number of children born to Neo-Pagan families—is resulting in Neo-Paganism developing some of the marks of a mature and established religion.

Introduction to Pagan Studies

Barbara Jane Davy
Introduction to Pagan Studies Book PDF

Author : Barbara Jane Davy
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 0759108196

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Introduction to Pagan Studies by Barbara Jane Davy Pdf

A text on the academic study of contemporary wicca and paganism throughout the world.

Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern Europe

Kaarina Aitamurto,Scott Simpson
Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern Europe Book PDF

Author : Kaarina Aitamurto,Scott Simpson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2014-10-20
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317544623

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Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern Europe by Kaarina Aitamurto,Scott Simpson Pdf

The resurgence of religiosity in post-communist Europe has been widely noted, but the full spectrum of religious practice in the diverse countries of Central and Eastern Europe has been effectively hidden behind the region's range of languages and cultures. This volume presents an overview of one of the most notable developments in the region, the rise of Pagan and "Native Faith" movements. Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern Europe brings together scholars from across the region to present both systematic country overviews - of Armenia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, and Ukraine - as well as essays exploring specific themes such as racism and the internet. The volume will be of interest to scholars of new religious movements especially those looking for a more comprehensive picture of contemporary paganism beyond the English-speaking world.

Neo-Paganism: Historical Inspiration & Contemporary Creativity

John Halstead
Neo Paganism Historical Inspiration Contemporary Creativity Book PDF

Author : John Halstead
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 330 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2019-09-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780359883776

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Neo-Paganism: Historical Inspiration & Contemporary Creativity by John Halstead Pdf

A living relationship with the wild natural world is our birthright as human beings. But centuries of civilization, patriarchy, transcendental monotheism, reductionist science, and capitalism have broken the connection between humankind and nature. To be Neo-Pagan today is to reclaim our original relation with the world. It is nothing more and nothing less than to be fully human again. To (re-)learn what this means, we need to strip away the layers of estrangement that have accreted to our collective soul over the centuries. So we look back to our pagan ancestors. Though separated by time, there is a connection between us and them. We carry it in our flesh and blood. At our most fundamental, we are still the same human beings we were then. We can be pagan again today because we live under the same Sun and on the same Earth, we feel the same wind blowing through our hair and the same rain falling on our skin.

The Return of Ancestral Gods

Mariya Lesiv
The Return of Ancestral Gods Book PDF

Author : Mariya Lesiv
Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2013-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9780773589650

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The Return of Ancestral Gods by Mariya Lesiv Pdf

As Ukraine struggles to find its national identity, modern Ukrainian Pagans offer an alternative vision of the Ukrainian nation. Drawing inspiration from the spiritual life of past millennia, they strive to return to the pre-Christian roots of their ancestors. Since Christianity dominates the spiritual discourse in Ukraine, Pagans are marginalized, and their ideas are perceived as radical. In The Return of Ancestral Gods, Mariya Lesiv explores Pagan beliefs and practices in Ukraine and amongst the North American Ukrainian diaspora. Drawing on intensive fieldwork, archival documents, and published sources not available in English, she allows the voices of Pagans to be heard. Paganism in Slavic countries is heavily charged with ethno-nationalist politics, and previous scholarship has mainly focused on this aspect. Lesiv finds it important to consider not only how Paganism is preached but also the way that it is understood on a private level. She shows that many Ukrainians embrace Paganism because of its aesthetic aspects rather than its associated politics and discusses the role that aesthetics may play in the further development of Ukrainian Paganism. Paganism in Eastern Europe remains underrepresented within Pagan studies, and this work helps to fill that gap. Extensive comparative references to various forms of Western Paganism allows English-speaking readers to better understand the world of Ukrainian Pagans.

Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves

Sarah M. Pike
Earthly Bodies Magical Selves Book PDF

Author : Sarah M. Pike
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2001-01-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780520923805

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Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves by Sarah M. Pike Pdf

Recent decades have seen a revival of paganism, and every summer people gather across the United States to celebrate this increasingly popular religion. Sarah Pike's engrossing ethnography is the outcome of five years attending neo-pagan festivals, interviewing participants, and sometimes taking part in their ceremonies. Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves incorporates her personal experience and insightful scholarly work concerning ritual, sacred space, self-identity, and narrative. The result is a compelling portrait of this frequently misunderstood religious movement. Neo-paganism began emerging as a new religious movement in the late 1960s. In addition to bringing together followers for self-exploration and participation in group rituals, festivals might offer workshops on subjects such as astrology, tarot, mythology, herbal lore, and African drumming. But while they provide a sense of community for followers, Neo-Pagan festivals often provoke criticism from a variety of sources—among them conservative Christians, Native Americans, New Age spokespersons, and media representatives covering stories of rumored "Satanism" or "witchcraft." Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves explores larger issues in the United States regarding the postmodern self, utopian communities, cultural improvisation, and contemporary spirituality. Pike's accessible writing style and her nonsensationalistic approach do much to demystify neo-paganism and its followers.

Between the Worlds

Síân Lee MacDonald Reid
Between the Worlds Book PDF

Author : Síân Lee MacDonald Reid
Publisher : Canadian Scholars’ Press
Page : 402 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781551303147

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Between the Worlds by Síân Lee MacDonald Reid Pdf

This volume investigates the trend toward pre-monotheistic worship and focuses on neo-paganism practitioners' desire to find the female in the divine. It includes the work of Starhawk, Ronald Hutton, Michael York, Graham Harvey, Jenny Blain, Helen A. Berger, Wendy Griffith, and more.

Pagan Theology

Michael York
Pagan Theology Book PDF

Author : Michael York
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 251 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2005-04
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9780814797082

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Pagan Theology by Michael York Pdf

In Pagan Theology, Michael York provides an introduction to, and expansion of, the concept of Paganism and provides an overview of its theological perspective and practice. He demonstrates it to be a viable and distinguishable spiritual perspective found today in such forms as Chinese folk religion, Shinto, tribal religions, and neo-Paganism in the West. While adherents of many of these traditions do not use the word "pagan" to describe their beliefs or practices, York contends that there is an identifiable position possessing characteristics and understandings in common for which the label "pagan" is appropriate. He outlines these characteristics and also explores paganism as a general form of religious behavior which may be found in other religions which are not themselves pagan. In the course of examining such behavior, York provides descriptions of religions in action, including Buddhism and Hinduism.