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Heathenry, also termed Heathenism or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan new religious movement, the practitioners of which seek to revive the pre-Christian religions adhered to by the Germanic peoples of Iron Age and Early Medieval Europe. To reconstruct these past belief systems, Heathenry uses surviving historical, archaeological, and folkloric evidence as a basis, although approaches to this material vary considerably. Heathen communities are currently present in various parts of Europe, the Americas, and Australasia. Although lacking a unified theology, Heathenry is typically polytheistic, centering on a pantheon of deities from pre-Christian Germanic Europe including both gods and goddesses. It adopts cosmological views from these pre-Christian religions, including an animistic view of the cosmos in which the natural world is imbued with spirits. The faith's deities and these spirits are honored in sacrificial rites known as ''blóts'' in which food and libations are offered to the spirits. These are often accompanied by ''symbel'', the act of ceremonially toasting the gods with an alcoholic beverage. Some practitioners also engage in rituals designed to induce altered states of consciousness and visions, most notably ''seiðr'' and ''galdr'', with the intent of gaining wisdom and advice from the deities. Although there are many solitary practitioners who follow the religion alone, members of the Heathen community often assemble in small groups, usually known as ''kindreds'' or ''hearths'', to perform their rites in specially constructed buildings or outdoors. Heathen ethical systems place great emphasis on honor, personal integrity, and loyalty, while beliefs about an afterlife are varied and rarely emphasized. The primary division within the Heathen movement surrounds the issue of race. Many groups eschew racialist ideas, adopting a universalist perspective which holds that the religion is open to all, irrespective of ethnic or racial identity. Conversely, others adopt a racialist attitude – termed "folkish" within the community – by viewing Heathenry as a religion with intrinsic links to a Nordic race that should be reserved explicitly for white people. Some folkish Heathens further combine the religion with explicitly racist and white supremacist perspectives. Although the term "Heathenry" is used widely to describe the religion as a whole, many groups prefer different forms of designation, influenced by their regional focus and their attitude to race. While a number of groups venerating Scandinavian deities use Ásatrú or Forn Sed, those focusing on Anglo-Saxon deities use Theodism, and those adopting folkish perspectives tend to favor the terms Odinism and Wotanism. The religion's origins lie in the 19th and early 20th century romanticist movements that glorified the pre-Christian beliefs of Germanic societies. Organised groups venerating the Germanic gods developed in Germany, Austria, and Australia, which typically exhibited a racialist interpretation of the religion, resulting in the movement largely dissolving following the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. In the 1970s, new Heathen groups emerged in Europe and North America, developing themselves into formalized organizations in order to promote their faith. In recent decades, the Heathen movement has been the subject of academic study by scholars active in the field of Pagan studies. ==Definition== Scholars of religious studies classify Heathenry as a new religious movement, and more specifically as a reconstructionist form of modern Paganism. Heathenry is "movement to revive and/or reinterpret for the present day the practices and worldviews of the pre-Christian cultures of northern Europe (or, more particularly, the Germanic speaking cultures)", and its practitioners seek to revive these past belief systems using surviving historical source materials. Sources used by Heathens include Scandinavian and Icelandic Old Norse texts like the ''Prose Edda'' and the ''Poetic Edda'', as well as texts from continental Europe like the ''Nibelungenlied'' and Anglo-Saxon sources like ''Beowulf''. Some also make use of folk tales from later periods in European history, as well as taking ideas from archaeological evidence. The textual sources used are often fragmentary and composed within Christian contexts, thus making it problematic for Heathens seeking to use them to "reconstruct" the pre-Christian prehistoric and Medieval belief systems which they discuss. Thus, anthropologist Jenny Blain characterised Heathenry as "a religion constructed from partial material", while religious studies scholar Michael Strmiska referred to it as a "postmodern movement" with beliefs that are "riddled with uncertainty and historical confusion". The ways in which Heathens use this historical and archaeological material differs; some seek to reconstruct past beliefs and practices as accurately as possible, while others openly experiment with this material and embrace new innovations. Some, for instance, accept "unverified personal gnosis" (UPG) that they have gained through spiritual experiences. Others adopt concepts from the world's surviving indigenous religions as well as modern polytheistic faiths such as Hinduism and Afro-American religions, believing that doing so helps to construct spiritual world-views that are akin to those that existed in Europe prior to Christianization. Other practitioners who emphasize a hard reconstructionist approach that relies exclusively on historical and archaeological sources criticize such attitudes, denigrating those who practice them using the pejorative term ''Neo-Heathen''. Some Heathens seek out common elements that were found throughout Germanic Europe during the Iron Age and Early Medieval periods, using those as the basis for their contemporary beliefs and practices. Conversely, others focus on closely imitating the beliefs and practices of a specific area and time, such as Anglo-Saxon England or Viking Age Iceland. Some adherents are deeply knowledgeable as to the specifics of Northern European society in the Iron Age and Early Medieval periods, although sectors of the Heathen movement have perpetuated misconceptions about the past. Many express a romanticized view of Nordic culture, with sociologist of religion Jennifer Snook noting that many practitioners "hearken back to a more epic, anachronistic, and pure age of ancestors and heroes". As religious studies scholar Fredrik Gregorius stated, despite the fact that "no real continuity" exists between Heathenry and the pre-Christian belief systems of Germanic Europe, Heathen practitioners often dislike being considered adherents of a "new religion" and "modern invention" and thus prefer to depict theirs as a "traditional faith". Many practitioners avoid using the etic term "reconstructionism" to describe their practices, preferring to characterize it as an "indigenous religion" with parallels to the traditional belief systems of the world's indigenous peoples. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Heathenry (new religious movement)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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