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Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Heathenry (new religious movement)

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Heathenry (new religious movement)

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This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 18, 2017 by Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 15:23, 29 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Practioners on their way to a ceremony

Heathenry, or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan religion. Classified as a new religious movement, its practitioners model their faith on the belief systems of Germanic peoples of Iron Age and Early Medieval Europe. Heathenry uses historical, archaeological, and folkloric evidence as a basis. It does not have a unified theology and is typically polytheistic, centering on a pantheon of deities. It adopts cosmological views, including an animistic view of the cosmos in which the natural world is imbued with spirits. Although there are many solitary practitioners who follow the religion alone, members of the Heathen community often assemble in small groups to perform their rites in specially constructed buildings or outdoors (pictured). Heathen ethical systems place great emphasis on honor, personal integrity, and loyalty, while beliefs about an afterlife are varied and rarely emphasized. Many groups adopt a "universalist" perspective which holds that the religion is open to all, irrespective of ethnic or racial identity. Scholarly estimates put the number of Heathens at no more than 20,000 worldwide, with communities of practitioners active in Europe, North America, and Australasia. (Full article...)