Defining Paganism
The Parliament of World Religions (PWR) plays a vitally important role in facilitating interfaith dialogue. This year’s PWR had a strong emphasis on indigenous spiritualities.
The pagan contingent at the PWR sparked off controversy in allegedly proposing a very restricted definition of paganism. The information was provided by Ed Hubbard in his on-going commentary on the PWR:
http://paganmichigan.ning.com/forum/topics/updates-from-the-parliament-of
The core definition was:
“’Paganism’ is a collective term that most aptly defines Indigenous cultures of pre-Christian Europe, the Celtic and Germanic Tribes, The Balts, The Scandinavians, The Basques, The Slaves [sic] and many others.”
The problem with this definition is that it limits itself to reconstructionists and (more…)