tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817911217098974229.post245809905712170006..comments2023-11-05T04:09:26.194-05:00Comments on e g r e g o r e s: The first person ever referred to as a "Heathen" was SemiticApuleius Platonicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11761230673724504084noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817911217098974229.post-91873579079280139272013-01-14T09:37:21.078-05:002013-01-14T09:37:21.078-05:00Hi Freeman! That is a great point.
One does find...Hi Freeman! That is a great point. <br /><br />One does find, and quite frequently, the claim that both "Pagan" and "Heathen" refer to "the indigenous faiths of Europe" or something like that. That of course is true, but only if it is also acknowledged that the terms "Pagan" and "Heathen" are in no sense exclusively European, nor are they in any sense "essentially" European (and/or "Indo-European"). <br /><br />That being said, there are, unfortunately, groups like the "Native Faith" movement in the Ukraine that are openly and viciously antisemitic. And many other Heathen groups, such as McNallen's AFA, dance around the edges of explicit racism.<br /><br />In the end, at least in my opinion, "Heathen" is just a Germanic equivalent of the Latin term "Pagan", and both refer to anyone who follows the old ways and the old Gods. And it should go without saying that anyone today who follows the old ways and the old Gods does so, in some sense, in a "modern" fashion, just as those who resisted Christianization 2000 years ago were followers of "modern" forms of Paganism when compared to those who had lived 2000 years before them.Apuleius Platonicushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11761230673724504084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817911217098974229.post-51767946140748712702013-01-13T22:30:08.389-05:002013-01-13T22:30:08.389-05:00Was there a specific reference made, claiming that...Was there a specific reference made, claiming that Heathen implied Germanic, or Northern European, or whatever?<br /><br />I know some Heathens like the word out of a sort of linguistic purism, since it is derived from a Teutonic root instead of Latin, but that's not quite the same thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com