Paganism

Summary

In early Christianity, paganism collectively referred to the diverse religious practices of all people who were pantheists. More specifically, it denoted anyone who did not adhere to an Abrahamic religion in the Roman Empire. Individuals fell into the pagan class either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population or because they were not a soldier of Christ. Terms synonymously used in Christian texts of the period include heathen, Hellene, and gentile. A widely regarded indication of whether a person was a pagan or a Christian was their partaking in ritual sacrifice, which was an integral part of Greco-Roman religion. Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry" in Christian thought.