Path: kudonet.com!news.scruz.net!miwok!HSNX.wco.com!news.wco.com!news-out.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!pandora.digitaladvantage.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!howland.erols.net!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!uunet!in1.uu.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!brz From: brz@u.washington.edu (R Brzustowicz) Newsgroups: alt.religion.all-worlds,alt.satanism,alt.pagan,alt.religion.wicca Subject: Re: CAW and Satanism. Mr. Scratch Responds.... (fwd) Date: 19 Mar 1997 17:11:16 GMT Organization: University of Washington, Seattle Lines: 54 Message-ID: <5gp6nk$n0q@nntp4.u.washington.edu> References: <01bc2ec0$acd26780$4272adce@crc3.concentric.net> <5gl6jh$gec_001@dialup1.den.asupernet.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: carson.u.washington.edu Xref: kudonet.com alt.religion.all-worlds:7973 alt.satanism:49861 alt.pagan:164111 alt.religion.wicca:38100 In article <5gl6jh$gec_001@dialup1.den.asupernet.com>, Melissa Rhiannon Brookstone wrote: >In article , > Baron Samedi wrote: >>On 12 Mar 1997, sabre wrote: >[snip] >> The difficulty with identifying one's self as "pagan" is that >>"pagan" stood for a large and varied array of different religions and >>philosophies found in and around the Roman Imperium during the early days >>of Christianity. [snip] > >pa·gan (pł“g…n) n. 1. One who is not a Christian, Moslem, or Jew; a >heathen. 2. One who has no religion. 3. A non-Christian. 4. A hedonist. >--pa·gan adj. 1. Not Christian, Moslem, or Jewish. 2. Professing no >religion; heathen. [Middle English, from Late Latin paganus, from Latin, >country-dweller, civilian, from pagus, country, rural district. See pag- >below.] --pa“gan·dom (-d…m) n. --pa“gan·ish adj. --pa“gan·ism n. > >It was my understanding that "Pagan" was from the Latin "Paganus" >originally meaning "country dweller" or "unconverted". Looks like it's time to call people's attention once again to the OED article on "pagan". Here's the salient bit. pagan ('peIg&schwa.n), sb. and a. Forms: 4 paygane, 5 pagayne, 5-6 > pagane, 5-pagan. [ad. L. pagan-us, orig. `villager, rustic; civilian, > non-militant', opposed to miles `soldier, one of the army', in Christian L. (Tertullian, Augustine) `heathen' as opposed to Christian or Jewish. > The Christians called themselves milites `enrolled soldiers' of Christ, > members of his militant church, and applied to non-Christians the term > applied by soldiers to all who were `not enrolled in the army'. Cf. Tertullian De Corona Militis xi, `Apud hunc [Christum] tam miles est paganus fidelis quam paganus est miles infidelis'. See also GIBBON xxi. note. Cf. PAYEN. The explanation of L. paganus in the sense `non-Christian, heathen', as arising out of that of `villager, rustic', (supposedly indicating the fact that the ancient idolatry lingered on in the rural villages and hamlets after Christianity had been generally accepted in the towns and cities of the Roman Empire: see Trench Study of Words 102, and cf. Orosius I Praef. `Ex locorum agrestium compitis et pagis pagani > vocantur') has been shown to be chronologically and historically > untenable, for this use of the word goes back to Tertullian c 202, > when paganism was still the public and dominant religion, > and even appears, according to Lanciani, in an epitaph of the 2nd cent.] R Brzustowicz (brz@u.washington.edu)