This article provides an overview of the relations between Christians and Pagans. Early Christianity developed in an era of the Roman Empire during which many religions were practiced, that are, due to the lack of a better term, labeled Paganism. "Paganism" in spite of its etymological meaning of "rural" in the context of early Christianity has a number of distinct meanings.

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  • This article provides an overview of the relations between Christians and Pagans. Early Christianity developed in an era of the Roman Empire during which many religions were practiced, that are, due to the lack of a better term, labeled Paganism. "Paganism" in spite of its etymological meaning of "rural" in the context of early Christianity has a number of distinct meanings. It refers to the Greco-Roman religions of the Roman Empire period, including the Roman imperial cult, the various mystery religions as well as philosophic monotheistic or religions such as Neoplatonism or Gnosticism as well as the "barbarian" tribal religions practiced on the fringes of the Empire. From the point of view of the early Christians these religions all qualified as "ethnic" (or "gentile", ethnikos, gentilis, the term translating goyim, later rendered as paganus) in contrast with Judaism. Since the Council of Jerusalem, the Christian apostles accepted both Jewish and pagan converts, and there was a precarious balance between the Judaizers, insisting on the obedience to the Torah Laws by all Christians, on one hand, and Pauline Christianity, developed in the gentile missionary context, on the other. Christianity during the Middle Ages stood in opposition to the "pagan" ethnic religions of the peoples outside the former Roman Empire, i.e. Germanic paganism, Slavic paganism etc.
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  • March 2009
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  • March 2008
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  • March 2008
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  • This article provides an overview of the relations between Christians and Pagans. Early Christianity developed in an era of the Roman Empire during which many religions were practiced, that are, due to the lack of a better term, labeled Paganism. "Paganism" in spite of its etymological meaning of "rural" in the context of early Christianity has a number of distinct meanings.
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  • Christianity and Paganism
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