Is Hellenism Paganism?
Many Pagans today think that Hellenism is interchangeable with Paganism. Why is this the case? The problem stems from what I believe to be a confusion and conflation of terms. Let's break it all down!
In discussions around ancient and modern religious identities, much confusion arises around terms like “Hellenism” and “Paganism.” This issue is especially relevant in modern Pagan circles, where some adopt “Hellenism” as a self-identifier, believing it to be equivalent to “Paganism,” a modern religious identity that reclaimed the word from Christian polemics. Often, when I educate Pagans by telling them Hellenism isn’t a Pagan religion, a typical response will be, “Hellenism refers to (or is) Paganism…” Hellenism is not Paganism, so what is the cause of this confusion? The confusion arises from a misunderstanding concerning scholarly classification.
To understand why “Hellenism” doesn’t mean “Paganism” in the way modern Pagans might think, it’s essential to know about first-order and second-order categorization. A first-order category is how people describe and understand their beliefs, practices, or worldviews. A second-order category is an analytical term scholars use to study and interpret those beliefs from a broader, often comparative perspective. In fields such as Classics or Ancient History, “paganism” falls under the second-order category; this is very important for Pagans to understand.
Hellenism belongs in the first-order category in its Greek context. It originated as a term to denote proper Greek grammar free of error. Later, from the Hellenistic period onwards, it grew to encompass Greek culture as a whole and the act of behaving like a Greek.
From this context, Christians began to turn it into a polemical term. In early Christianity, some Christians used the term “Hellenism” to lump together various religious practices, philosophies, and lifestyles as distinct from (and often opposed to) Christianity. Thus, “Hellenism” here is a first-order category also—it’s how Christians described the “other” in their polemics.
Modern scholars use “paganism” as a second-order category to classify the religious diversity of the Greco-Roman world that wasn’t Christian. Scholars apply “paganism” to encompass the variety of polytheistic practices, beliefs, and traditions without implying a unified religious identity that ancient practitioners themselves recognized. This second-order usage of “paganism” helps scholars compare and analyze ancient religions under a broad, accessible term, but it doesn’t suggest that people at the time identified as “pagans” or saw themselves in that way.
Some Pagans today assume that “Hellenism,” as used by ancient Christians, directly translates to “paganism” in the first-order sense. Pagans incorrectly take what is an analytical term and make it part of their historical religious identity as modern Pagans. Thus, in anything that they read in academic books where “paganism” is used, the first and second-order classifications become blurred and lost. This happens because today, “Pagan” and “Paganism” would be a first-order categorical term when studying modern Pagan religions and Pagans.
With this all in mind, here is the mistake Pagans make. When it is argued that “Hellenism” is or refers to “Paganism,” they are attaching their modern usage of Paganism to the analytical term “paganism.” Thus, when Pagans see that scholars exchange “Hellenism” for “paganism” in their works, they are unaware that a first-order term is exchanged for a second-order term for the sake of the scholar and their audience. In other words, an analytical term (paganism/pagan) is confused and conflated with a contemporary religious identity (Paganism/Pagan). Thus, “Hellenism” incorrectly is thought of as “Paganism.”
Understanding these distinctions prevents the projection of modern identities onto ancient terms. While Pagans may find inspiration in ancient Greek practices, calling their Paganism “Hellenism” misunderstands how the term was historically used and is still used today by Greeks. Instead, using terms like “Hellenistic” more accurately reflects how they are inspired by ancient Greek religion without conflating them with historical usage and modern academic classifications.