The relation of the Christian Church to the vari- ous forms of paganism, or, better, polytheism, which it has sought to supplant, and continues seeking to supplant, is a subject of great importance to the stu- dent of ecclesiastical history. But we have not suffi- cient room to enter here into a detailed account of pa- ganism. We must content ourselves with saying that the principal pagan religions of the world are briefly defined as follows : Those of Japan, Buddhism and Sinto- ism ; of China, Buddhism and Confucianism; of Tar- tar}-, Lamaism ; of India, Brahminism, Buddhism, Thug- gism, and the religion of the Parsees ; of Persia, Moham- medanism and the Zoroastrian religion ; of Africa, Fe- tichism ; of Polynesia, image-worship and hero-worship ; of the ancient aborigines of Lapland, Greenland, and North America, a peculiar combination of spirit and fe- tich worship, described under the article Indians. For an account of these various forms of paganism, see the articles treating of the different countries mentioned, and of the various religious systems mentioned in that connection.
The entire pagan population of the world is estimated in Johnson's Family Atlas at 766,342,000, distributed as follows :
America 3,899,000
Asia CC0,2.^1,00O
Africa 'J4,9T'2,Ono
Australasia and Polynesia 1,220,000
706,342,000 Against this there is an estimated Christian population, including Protestant, Roman Catholic, and (Jreek com- munions, of 369,969,000; a Mohammedan population of 160,823,000; and a Jewish population of 6,000,000.
In this place we confine ourselves to that form of paganism with which Christianity came in contact im- mediately after its organization and propagation, i. e. the paganism of the Roman empire, and those powers organized and controlled by institutions of a like stand- ard of civilization. For the paganism of the remaining world, in its relation to Christianity, see Fetichism;
POLYTHEISjr.
I. Pagan Theology. — The theology of these pagans, according to their own writers, e.g. Scavola and Varro, was of three forms. The first of these may well be call- ed fabulous, as treating of the theology and genealogy of their deities, in which they say such things as are un- worthy of deity ; ascribing to them thefts, murders, adul- teries, and all manner of crimes ; and therefore this kind of theology is condemned by the wiser sort of heathens as nugatory and scandalous. The writers of this sort of theology were Sanchoniatho, the Phoenician ; and among the Greeks, Or|)heus, Hesiod, Pherecydes, etc. The second sort, caWcd physic, or natural, was studied and taught by the philosophers, who, rejecting the multiplicity of gods introduced by the poets, brought their theology to a more natural and rational form, and supposed that there was but one supreme god, which they commonly made to be the sun — at least this was an emblem of him — but at too great a distance to mind the affairs of the world : they
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therefore devised certain diumons, which they consid- ered as mediators between the supreme god and man; and the doctrine of tliese diemons, to which the apostle is thounlit to allude in 1 Tim. iv, 1, was what the phi- losophers liad a concern with. Tliey treated of their nature, office, and regard to men, as did Tliales, Py- thagoras, Plato, and the Stoics. The third form, called politic, or civil, was instituted by legislators, statesmen, and politicians — such as, first among the Romans, Numa Pompilius : it chiefly respected their gods, temples, altars, sacrifices, and rites of worship, and was projjcrly an idolatrj-, the care of which belonged to the priests, and this was enjoined upon the common people, to keep them in obedience to the civil state. Thus things continued in the Gentile world until the light of the Gospel was sent among them. The times before were times ofifpio- rance, as the apostle calls them : men were ignorant of the true God, and of the worship of him ; and of the Messiah, and salvation by him. Their state is truly described (Eph. ii, 12) that they were then "without Christ ; aliens from the commonwealth of Israel ; stran- gers from the covenants of promise ; having no hope, and without God in the world ;" and, consequently, their theology was insufficient for their salvation.
n. Par/umsm combated by Christianity. — The con- test between Christianity and paganism, so far as the circinnstances of it are known, was almost as much a contest between the civil authorities of the Koman empire and the religion, as between Christianity and the old religions of the civilized world. Of all that took place with respect to conflicts between the new and old religions in countries adjoining the Roman em- pire, such as the Parthian empire in the West and the Germanic nations in the North, we know next to noth- ing. But within the bounds of the Roman empire itself Christianity was a standing enemy of manj' existing in- stitutions in every country, and these institutions being upheld by the state, Christians came to be looked upon, in respect to their religion, as national enemies wherever they existed. It was part of the policy of the Roman empire, as is well known, to tolerate all national relig- ions within the boundaries of the nations which pro- fessed them, but this toleration was suspended when these religions began to exercise a proselyting influence beyond their national boundaries. Now it was an es- sential characteristic of Christianity that it was a prose- lyting religion. Its teachers acted under the especial commission, " Go ye into all the world, and make disci- ples of every creature," and no other religion ever showed such an aggressive nature. Thus Christianity was, in limine, a foe to the existing religious institutions of the world, as they were looked at from a statesman's point of view. But, more than this, Christianity refused to become a peaceable member of any eclectic system. The scepticism of the academies was superseded during the earh' spread of Christianity by an eclecticism origi- nating with Ammonius Saccas and his disciples, the Neo- Platonists. This system became extremely fashionable among the intellectual classes in the more learned re- gions of the Roman empire. It was an attempt, a last attempt, of heathenism to work itself into an alliance with a foe of whom an inner conviction seemed to say that he would in the end prove too strong for it. But Christianity would not come to terms. It would not even consent to the drawing up of preliminaries for a treaty of peace. The words of its Master were con- tinually illustrated by all Christian missionaries, "I came not to send peace, but a sword." Christianity sought not toleration, not compromise, but universal supremacy. Thus, theoretically at least, the contest between Christianity and paganism was a war which could only end by the extermination of one or the other, and the process of resistance to extermination on the part of paganism was that which constituted the sub- stance of the struggle between it and Christianity. But, apart from this general antagonism between the two religious systems, there was a special institution of