The Christians and the Pagans

My sister and I had many a lovely conversation last week as we drove through the switchbacks of eastern Tennessee on the way to and back from visiting my mommy in South Carolina. Sofia slept peacefully in her little carseat, deaf to the peals of laughter and conversational noises emitting from the front seat. One of the many tangents we diverged upon was the etymology of the word "pagan." We couldn't remember it, although both of us had recently come across it. Irene, sharp and diligent intellectual that she is, remembered to email the etymology to me yesterday, a few days after our arrival home. I added to it by searching in the Oxford English Dictionary for an extended etymology. It was extremely curious. Perhaps a few more people might put themselves in the pagan camp after reading the history of the term and its duality to the term "Christian." So here it is, for all those burning to know:

PAGAN. n. adj. "from Latin 'paganus', originally "villager, rustic; civilian, non-militant", opposed to 'miles' "soldier, one of the army". In Christian Latin (Tertullian, Augustine), "heathen" as opposed to Christian or Jewish. The Christians called themselves 'milites': "enrolled soldiers" of Christ (members of this militant church) and applied to non-Christians the term applied by soldiers to all who were 'not enrolled in the army.' from Tertullian 'De Corona Militis' xi' "Apud hune [Cristum] tam miles est paganus fidelis quam paganus est miles infidelis."

So now we are all inspired to go home and read Tertullian in full in the original Latin. Go on, scatter, all you little pagans!!!


(from the website http://www.bluewitch.com/healingtarot/empress.htm)