Pagan Religions in Five Minutes - Suzanne Owen
54. Can Paganism be Applied to non-European Religions, Such as Shinto?
Pagan Religions in Five Minutes - Suzanne Owen
Douglas Ezzy [+]
School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania
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Douglas Ezzy is a professor of Sociology at the University of Tasmania. He is President of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion (2015-2016) and editor of the Journal for the Academic Study of Religion. His research is driven by a fascination with how people make meaningful and dignified lives. His books include Sex, Death and Witchcraft (2014), Qualitative Analysis (2002), and Teenage Witches (2007, with Helen Berger).
Description
As the term Pagan, both historically and more recently as a reclaimed term, emerged in Europe, most scholars agree that it should only be applied to Western traditions. However, there are similarities in beliefs and practices to Paganism in other parts of the world but care ought to be taken in the case of applying the term to non-Western and Indigenous practices as this can be regarded as a form of colonialism.