Imagining Paganism through the Ages: Studies on the Use of the Labels 'Pagan' and 'Paganism' in Controversies [Paperback]

This volume contains the proceedings of the first InternationalColloquium of the Research Centre Polemikos that was founded in 2016by Joseph Verheyden (KU Leuven) and Daniela M?ller (RU Nijmegen). TheCentre is dedicated to the study of the history of religious polemics.This first meeting, held 14-16 of March 2018 in Leuven, studied acommonly known and broadly used way to discredit an adversary by usinglabels, in particular the negative label par excellence  that of beinga pagan. <br/>

For practical reasons, the focus was limited to voices and evidence ofWestern origin  from the famous <i>adversus Paganos</i> literature tothe controversies on native populations after the discovery of the NewWorld and the place and role to be given to more rationalisticapproaches to the Christian faith in the (early) modern period. The casestudies presented here illustrate that the label can receive manydifferent meanings. Among these are the characterisation of the othersas strangers or barbarians and the accusation of committing idolatry,but also all sorts of insinuations or claims of immoral behaviour andmore outlandish ones that associate these pagan others with demonicschemes. The last two contributions have less to do with fighting andmore with imagining paganism, though these two aspects overlap as isshown in several of the essays; hence the choice for ImaginingPaganism in the general title.