Editing Paganism (section)

== Ethnocentrism ==
Recently, the [[ethnocentric]] and [[moral absolutist]] origins of the common usage of the term pagan have been proposed,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hanegraaff |first1=Wouter |title=Reconstructing "Religion" from the Bottom Up |journal=Numen |year=2016 |volume=63 |issue=5/6 |pages=576–605 |doi=10.1163/15685276-12341439 |jstor=44505310 |hdl=11245.1/8b66dd94-5e6c-4c56-95ec-dbf822201e46 |s2cid=171686966 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44505310}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Blumberg |first1=Antonia |title=What Not To Say When You Meet Someone Who Is Pagan |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-not-to-say-when-you-meet-someone-who-is-pagan_n_57474735e4b055bb11719b22 |access-date=23 March 2021 |agency=Huffington Post |date=27 May 2016}}</ref> with scholar David Petts noting how, with particular reference to Christianity, "...local religions are defined in opposition to privileged 'world religions'; they become everything that world religions are not, rather than being explored as a subject in their own right."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Petts |first1=David |title=Pagan and Christian: Religious Change in Early Medieval Europe |date=26 May 2011 |publisher=Bristol Classical Press |location=London |isbn=978-0-7156-3754-8 |page=31}}</ref> In addition, Petts notes how various spiritual, religious, and metaphysical ideas branded as "pagan" from diverse cultures were studied in opposition to Abrahamism in early anthropology, a binary he links to ethnocentrism and colonialism.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kourbage |first1=Melanie |title=Kourbage on Petts, 'Pagan and Christian: Religious Change in Early Medieval Europe' |url=https://networks.h-net.org/node/35008/reviews/42650/kourbage-petts-pagan-and-christian-religious-change-early-medieval |website=Humanities and Social Sciences Online |publisher=H-German |access-date=23 March 2021}}</ref>