Editing Modern paganism (section)

===Early modern period===
Discussions about prevailing, returning or new forms of paganism have existed throughout the modern period. Before the 20th century, Christian institutions regularly used paganism as a term for everything outside of Christianity, Judaism and – from the 18th century – Islam. They frequently associated paganism with idolatry, magic and a general concept of "false religion", which for example has made Catholics and Protestants accuse each other of being pagans.{{sfn|Stuckrad|2007|p=296}} Various [[folk belief]]s have periodically been labeled as pagan and churches have demanded that they should be purged.{{sfn|Stuckrad|2007|pp=296–297}} The Western attitude to paganism gradually changed during the early modern period. One reason was increased contacts with areas outside of Europe, which happened through trade, [[Christian mission]] and colonization. Increased knowledge of other cultures led to questions of whether their practices even fit into the definitions of religion, and paganism was incorporated in the idea of [[progress]], where it was ranked as a low, undeveloped form of religion.{{sfn|Stuckrad|2007|p=297}} Another reason for change was the circulation of ancient writings such as those attributed to [[Hermes Trismegistus]]; this made paganism an intellectual position some Europeans began to self-identify with, starting at the latest in the 15th century with people like [[Gemistus Pletho]], who wanted to establish a new form of Greco-Roman polytheism.{{sfn|Stuckrad|2007|p=297}}
Gemistus Pletho influenced [[Cosimo de Medici]] to establish the [[Platonic Academy (Florence)|Florentine Neoplatonic Academy]] and consequentially [[Julius Pomponius Laetus]] (student of Pletho) also advocated for a revival<ref name="marre">{{cite book |last=Marré |first=Davide |year=2008 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQatYivIsKsC&pg=PT17 |chapter=Tradizione Romana |trans-chapter=Roman tradition |language=Italian |editor-last=Marré |editor-first=Davide |title=L'Essenza del Neopaganesimo |trans-title=The essence of neopaganism |location=Milan |publisher=Circolo dei Trivi |pages=35–37 }}</ref> and established the [[Roman academies|Roman academy]] which secretly celebrated the [[Natale di Roma]] and the birthday of [[Romulus]].<ref>Raphael Volaterranus, in his Commentaries presented to [[Pope Julius II|Julius II]], declared that the enthusiasms of these initiates were "the first step towards doing away with the Faith" (Pastor IV 1894:44).</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=La 'conguira' degli umanisti: Platina e Pomponio Leto|url=http://www.castelsantangelo.com/tl_3a.asp|work=Castel Sant'Angelo|publisher=castelsantangelo.com|accessdate=25 November 2013|location=Rome|language=Italian|archive-date=3 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203003347/http://www.castelsantangelo.com/tl_3a.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Academy was dissolved in 1468 when [[Pope Paul II]]  ordered the arrest and execution of some of the members, [[Pope Sixtus IV]] allowed Laetus to open the academy again until the [[Sack of Rome (1527)|Sack of Rome]] in 1527.

Positive identification with paganism became more common in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it tied in with criticism of Christianity and organized religion, rooted in the ideas of the [[Age of Enlightenment]] and [[Romanticism]]. The approach to paganism varied during this period; [[Friedrich Schiller]]'s 1788 poem "[[Die Götter Griechenlandes]]" presents [[ancient Greek religion]] as a powerful alternative to Christianity, whereas others took interest in paganism through the concept of the [[noble savage]], often associated with [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]].{{sfn|Stuckrad|2007|p=297}} During the [[French Revolution]] and [[First French Republic]], some public figures incorporated pagan themes in their worldviews. An explicit example was [[Gabriel André Aucler]], who responded to both Christianity and Enlightenment [[atheism]] by performing pagan rites and arguing for renewed pagan religiosity in his book ''La Thréicie'' (1799).{{sfn|Merkin|2014|pp=257, 270}}