{"id":10568,"date":"2019-05-28T18:53:50","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T00:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10568"},"modified":"2019-06-02T21:00:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T03:00:08","slug":"pagan-with-a-capital-p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10568","title":{"rendered":"Pagan with a Capital P"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In editing the current issue of The Pomegranate<\/em>, one of my “favorite” issues came up again: whether or not Pagan is capitalized.<\/p>\n

American scholars and Pagan authors tend to say yes. There has been a small campaign to convince the editors of the Associated Press Stylebook<\/em><\/a>, widely used in the news media, and the Chicago Manual of Style, <\/em><\/a> widely used by university presses and serious nonfiction publisher.<\/p>\n

It’s a matter of accurate labeling and of respect. If Muslim, Hindu, etc. get capital letters, so should Pagan.<\/p>\n

This is not an issue that will be settled in a year, or even two or three. But I have hope.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, “pagan” can be used in direct quotation, particularly when it has the sense of “irreligious,” as in C. S. Lewis<\/a>‘s reference to the Roman poet Ovid<\/a> as “that jolly old pagan<\/a>.” (But he was also a cap-P Pagan, in my view.)<\/p>\n

\"\"On the other hand, writers in the UK tend to lowercase “pagan.” Others try to split the difference, using “pagan” for the ancients and “Pagan” for practitioners of post-1900 Pagan traditions, i.e. “Neo-Pagans.”((And that term, popular in the 1970s\u201380s, is more and more supplanted by “contemporary Pagan” or “modern Pagan.”))<\/p>\n

To my editorial eye, this approach is worse than no capital P at all. Imagine someone writing this: “Ancient pagans and today\u2019s Pagans differ in their attitudes toward animal sacrifice.”<\/p>\n

The reader might think that someone had either forgotten to capitalize one “pagan” or mistakenly capitalized the other. Confusing.<\/p>\n

I was happy to see recently that Koenrad Elst, a Belgian scholar of Hinduism, was using the capital-P in a broad sense.((Although he has a PhD in the study of Hindu nationalism, he is in fact is a civil servant, not an academic, which gives him certain advantages.)) Here, interviewed in the Hindu Post<\/em>, he implies that “Pagan” is like “Hindu”\u2014a label imposed by outsiders that nevertheless has been adopted today<\/a>:((This is a pro-BJP (ruling party) website.))<\/p>\n

The historical definition of the term \u201cHindu\u201d, brought by the Muslim invaders[1]<\/a><\/sup>, does not define a specific worldview and practice, as\u00a0the definitions of Christianity and Islam do. \u201cHindu\u201d is a geographically defined slice of Paganism, viz. all Pagan (=non-Christian, non-Muslim) traditions coming from Bharat (India). This means every possible belief or practice that does not conform to either\u00a0Christianity or Islam. It includes the Brahmins, the upper and lower\u00a0castes, the ex-Untouchables, the Tribals, the Buddhists (\u201cclean-shaven Brahmins\u201d), the Jains, and many sects that didn\u2019t even exist yet but\u00a0satisfy the definition: Lingayats, Sikhs, Arya Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission, ISKCon. I am aware that many now refuse to be called \u201cHindu\u201d,\u00a0but since they satisfy the definition, they are Hindu, period.\u00a0Elephants are not first asked whether they agree to being called elephants either.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My preference, too, is to use capital-P Pagan for all non-monotheists, ancient or modern. It is a simple and orthographically uncomplicated solution. And if anyone questions it, just refer them to the umbrella term “Hindu,” now accepted by (almost all) Hindus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In editing the current issue of The Pomegranate, one of my “favorite” issues came up again: whether or not Pagan is capitalized. American scholars and Pagan authors tend to say yes. There has been a small campaign to convince the editors of the Associated Press Stylebook, widely used in the news media, and the Chicago […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[137,128,299,5,7,4],"class_list":["post-10568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academia","tag-hinduism","tag-pagan-studies","tag-paganism","tag-publishing","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2Ks","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14218,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14218","url_meta":{"origin":10568,"position":0},"title":"Upcoming Zoom with Robin Douglas, Sasha Chaitow","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Two leading scholars of contemporary Paganism will be live on Zoom this weekend: Robin Douglas has a book in press with the Equinox series on Pagan studies: The Pagan Revival A Documentary History of Modern Paganism, 1700-1950. Sasha Chaitow is also widely published, including in The Pomegranate: The International Journal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8434,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8434","url_meta":{"origin":10568,"position":1},"title":"CFP: 2017 AAR Contemporary Pagan Studies Group","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"All the calls for the 2017 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion are now online. The meeting itself will be held 18\u201321 November in Boston. The Pagan studies theme is \"Witch Hunts: Rhetorical, Historical and Contemporary.\" The term \u201cwitch hunt\u201d is used as a rhetorical strategy in contemporary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":676,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=676","url_meta":{"origin":10568,"position":2},"title":"Let's drop 'Neopagan'Back in the\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's drop 'Neopagan'Back in the 1970s, when Tim (now Oberon) Zell was editing Green Egg (America's leading Pagan zine at the time), \"Neopagan\" or \"Neo-Pagan\" was a cutting-edge term for a collection of religious movements from Wicca to Egyptian Reconstructionism.More recently, the British Pagan scholar Graham Harvey has suggested dropping\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10102,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10102","url_meta":{"origin":10568,"position":3},"title":"Call for Papers: Digital Paganism and Digital Occultism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"For a special issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies. My name is Heather Freeman (Professor of Art, UNC Charlotte, USA) and I am seeking research on Digital Paganism \/ Digital Occultism for a future issue of\u00a0The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies.\u00a0 Please see the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Pom-cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10351,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10351","url_meta":{"origin":10568,"position":4},"title":"A Survey on Pagan Metaphysics and Ethics","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This comes from Gwendolyn Reese, whose work has appeared several times in The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies. She writes, The purposes of this study are to explore the relationship between how the metaphysical and theological beliefs held by Pagans\/Witches\/Heathens relate to each other and to beliefs about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2813,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2813","url_meta":{"origin":10568,"position":5},"title":"Pagan Family Website Seeks Writers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"From Sarah Whedon at Pagan Families: Pagan Families seeks carefully written contributions on all aspects of Pagan pregnancy and childbirth. Examples of the kind of writing we are seeking include: scripts for conception rituals; theological essays on the ethics of reproduction; prayers to mother goddesses; Pagan sensitivity guides for birth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"childhood\"","block_context":{"text":"childhood","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=childhood"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10568"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10593,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10568\/revisions\/10593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}