Pagan Religions in Five Minutes

Suzanne Owen is an associate professor in the study of religion at Leeds Trinity University in the United Kingdom researching British Druidry and Indigeneity in Newfoundland.Angela Puca, PhD (2021), is an independent religious studies scholar and university lecturer. She is bridging the gap between academia and the general public with her social media project Angela’s Symposium, where she disseminates peer-reviewed research to a wide audience engagingly. She’s the author of the forthcoming Italian Witchcraft and Shamanism, to be published by Brill, and coeditor of Pagan Religions in Five Minutes for Equinox Publishing Ltd.

• ForewordRonaldHutton, University of BristolPrefaceSuzanneOwen and Angela PucaPaganism1.What is Paganism? AngelaPuca 2.Is Paganism a religion? SuzanneOwen3.What is the difference between Pagan, pagan, Paganism andneo-Paganism? GrahamHarvey, The Open University4.How did modern Paganism begin? SabinaMagliocco, University of British Columbia5.What is the relationship between ancient and contemporary Paganism?CarolineTully, University of Melbourne6.How many Pagans are there? VivianneCrowley, Nottingham Trent University7.Are most Pagans solitary practitioners? HelenA. Berger, Brandeis University8.What is a Pagan worldview? GrahamHarvey9.Is there anything common to all Pagan Religions? JenniferUzzell, Pagan Federation10.Is Paganism a nature religion? EthanDoyle White 11.How do Pagans view nature and the environment? ChasS. Clifton12.Do Pagans have sacred sites? EthanDoyle White13.Do all Pagans follow the same festivals? DougEzzy, University of Tasmania14.Do Pagans have a holy book like the Bible? DeniseCush, Bath Spa University15.What is the relationship between Theosophy and Paganism? YvesMuehlematter, University of Zurich Paganreligions16.Can a Pagan follow more than one path or tradition? CarolineTully17.What is the difference between hard and soft polytheism? JeffersonCalico18. What is the difference between an eclectic and a traditionalPagan or witch? AngelaPuca 19.Are all witches Pagan? MaryHamner, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill20.Can anyone be called a “witch”? FrancescaPo 21.What is the difference between Wicca and witchcraft? MaryHamner22.What is Heathenry? JeffersonCalico 23.What is the difference between Druidism and Druidry? JenniferUzzell 24.Is Druidry the indigenous religion of Europe? SuzanneOwen25.What are Techno Pagans? ChrisMiller, University of Ottawa26.What was ancient Slavic “paganism”? GiuseppeMaiello, University of Finance and Administration, Prague 27.What is Romuva in Lithuania? MildaAlišauskienė, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas 28.Is Romuva an official religion in Lithuania? RasaPranskevičiūtė-Amoson, Vilnius University 29.How has Paganism developed in Brazil? KarinaOliveira Bezerra Paganbeliefs and practices30.How do Pagans conceive of gods? VivianneCrowley31.Is there salvation in paganism? MichaelYork, Bath Spa University32.Can a person have Pagan beliefs without being Pagan? AlessandroTesta, Charles University, Prague33.Are some Pagans atheist? SarahBest34.Do Pagans worship ancestors? JenniferUzzell 35.What are pagan ethics? MichaelYork 36.How do Pagans interact with deities and spirits? JennyButler, University College Cork 37.What does a Pagan minister do? HolliEmore, Cherry Hill Seminary 38.What does the pentacle symbol mean to Pagans? AngelaPuca 39.Do Pagans believe in reincarnation or life after death? JenniferUzzell 40.Do Pagans practise ritual sex? AngelaPuca41.Are Astrology and Tarot part of Paganism? FrancescaPo 42.How do Pagans view magic? KarinaOliveira Bezerra 43.Is there a difference between magic and magick? CarolineTully 44.What is chaos magic? IsisMrugalla, University of Tübingen 45.Do Pagans use the Internet for their religion? FranzWinter, University of Graz 46.Is Christmas a pagan festival? AlessandroTesta 47.Is Carnival a pagan festival? AlessandroTesta 48.Are Halloween and Easter pagan festivals? JennyButler Pagandiscussions49.Do Pagans practise sacrifice? JeffersonCalico 50.Are Satanism and Paganism the same? EthanDoyle White51.What explains the enduring bias against Pagans? FranzWinter 52.Is there antipathy between Pagans and Christians? DeniseCush 53.Can a Christian also be a Pagan? RhiannonGrant, Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre 54.Can Paganism be applied to non-European religions, such as Shinto?DougEzzy 55.Can witchdoctors and Africana spiritual traditions be regarded asPagan? MaryHearns-Ayodele 56.How much of Paganism is based on cultural appropriation? SabinaMagliocco57.Do Pagans have particular political views? EthanDoyle White 58.Is there a problem with fascism in contemporary Paganism? AmyHale 59.Were Pagans involved in the war in Ukraine? GiuseppeMaiello60.Why do some polytheists reject the term Pagan? AngeloNasios 61.Is Paganism empowering to women and LGBTQI+? GiovannaParmigiani, Harvard Divinity School 62.Is Paganism queer? [M]Dudeck63.Why is witchcraft popular among teenagers? DeniseCush 64.Do Pagans avoid technology? ChrisMiller65. What is WitchTok? MaryHamner66.How do Pagans use fiction and film? CaroleCusack, University of Sydney 67.Is Paganism make-believe? [M]Dudeck Studyingand teaching Pagan religions68.How do scholars study Paganism? ChrisMiller 69.Should Pagan religions be taught in schools? DeniseCush 70.Are contemporary Pagan religions indicative of a new form ofreligiosity? DeniseCush