This course tells the story of the word “pagan.” As with most words, what “pagan” means now is not what it has meant in the past. In the Roman empire, with its state religions, household deities, and mystery cults, the word “paganus” was an insult – the equivalent of being called a country bumpkin. Christians used the term to vilify the practices they displaced and “baptized.” In the Middle Ages and the era of European colonialism, the word was applied to the cultural practices of people in northern Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and in the process they unwittingly created a coherent-seeming other in “paganism.” Modern neo-Pagans have reclaimed the term. But are they reclaiming the ancient practices of the pre-Christian world or doing something entirely different?