... Paganism. I cannot seem to find a book strictly on paganism. Does any one know of a book on Paganism?
Responses (1)
Paganism VS Wicca
The difference between Paganism/Wicca is Paganism is an umbrella term. Paganism is used to describe any religions outside of Christianity, Judaism, or Judeo-Christian. Wicca is a form of Paganism, meaning it is a religion that falls under it.
Paganism describes a number of religions, such as: Wicca, Taoism, Satanism, Buddhism, Sikhism, etc. Wicca is just one particular religion that falls under this umbrella term. Wicca is derived from the word, "witchcraft". Because the word "witchcraft", has so much negativity attached to it, because of Christianity and the Bible, the name "Wicca", was created to describe the religion of witchcraft.
I don't think I'd classify Satanism as a Pagan religion at all. Atheistic Satanism is not a religion (LaVeyan Satanism is a philosophical group) and Spiritual Satanism works with the Judeo-Christian Pantheon and would therefore be a Christian heresy.
The reason that Wicca is now called Wicca and not Witchcraft is that a) the work of Margaret Murray, on whose hypotheses Gardner based his "witchcraft religion" on has been academically debunked and b) Llewellyn Publishing coined it when they published Scott Cunningham's books in the 1980's. But good answer, generally.
That is correct.