Lääne uus-paganluse piirjooni
A Brief Outline of Contemporary Neo-Paganism in the West

Summary/Abstract: Neo-Paganism can be considered as a marginal cultural and religious phenomenon in a modern society. This article which is mostly based on the sources available in Internet, gives a brief overview of the Neo-Paganism in the English speaking West, particularly in the United States where Neo-Pagan groupings have declared their views widely in World Wide Web. The present article will address some characteristics of the movement, facts about the development of the different groups, as well as their similarities and differences. A modern western society of today can be characterized as post-religious or post-Christian as in comparison with preceding periods of time an increasing secularization is underway. Religion is substituted by the other aspects of modern life, e.g. traits of cult and religion can be observed in politics, popular sub-cultures and mass media. On the other hand, modern time is characterised as an era of science, a triumph of secularism and rationalism. One may think that the decrease of the religious dominant on everyday life and society in general has, in turn, increased the interest in alternative spiritual and religious movements. The tendency is reflected in the formation and spread of the religious movements of Oriental origin, various Christian and non-Christian denominations and multifarious other new religious movements of different and mixed origins. All the trends can be characterised with a goodwill to understand the world and live differently from how it has been in earlier times, so that to complement the mainstream of Christianity, provide the alternative to atheism or any other tendency in the society.

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