Kutarev, O. V. European Neopaganism

Abstract: Neopaganism is a relatively new phenomenon. This type of new religious movements appeared only in the 19th – 20th century. Today this phenomenon attracts attention in both social life and mass media. Neopaganism is a religion that reconstitutes these or those fragments of pre-Christian religious faiths and is based on the old texts, however, it involves new elements of ecology, esoteric teachings and psycho-practices, humanitarian ethics and etc. Despite the growing scope of the phenomenon in the modern age, scientific review of neo-Paganism is still rather scarce and difficult to understand for a nonspecialist. In his review article Kutarev examines the grounds, main trends and peculiarities of neo-Paganism movements in Europe. He analyzes such traditions as German, Celtic, Finish, Beltian, etc. Special attention is paid to Slavic neo-Paganism and its variants. Besides describing religious faiths themselves, Kutarev focuses on their history, sources, function, etc. The novelty of research is caused by the fact that the author have summarized general features and defined tendencies that were common for neo-paganism as well as analyzed the ways those religious faiths functioned and why they were in such demand. Moreover, the review has allowed to define peculiarities of each neo-Paganism movement in particular. Special emphasis should be made on the differentiation between the terms ‘neo-Paganism’ and ‘Paganism’ for which the author provides evident grounds.

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