Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Modern Paganism, 1st ed. 2017
Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities Series

This volume explores how Pagans negotiate local and global tensions as they craft their identities, both as members of local communities and as cosmopolitan ?citizens of the world.? Based on cutting edge international  case studies from Pagan communities in the United States, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Malta, it considers how modern Pagans negotiate tensions between the particular and universal, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, ethnicity, and world citizenship. The burgeoning of modern Paganisms in recent decades has proceeded alongside growing globalization and human mobility, ubiquitous Internet use, a mounting environmental crisis, the re-valuing of indigenous religions, and new political configurations. Cosmopolitanism and nationalism have both influenced the weaving of unique local Paganisms in diverse contexts. Pagans articulate a strong attachment to local or indigenous traditions and landscapes, constructing paths that reflect local socio-cultural, political, and historical realities. However, they draw on the Internet and the global circulation of people and universal ideas. This collection considers how they confound these binaries in fascinating, complex ways as members of local communities and global networks. 

Introduction. “We are the Weavers, We are the Web”: Cosmopolitan Entanglements in Modern Paganism.- Appropriating, Romanticizing and Reimagining: Pagan Engagements with Indigenous Animism.- Heathens in the United States: The Return to “Tribes” in the Construction of a Peoplehood.- Only Slavic Gods: Nativeness in Polish Rodzimowierstwo.- Obsessed with Culture: The Cultural Impetus of Russian Neo-pagans.- Multiple Nationalisms and Patriotisms among Russian Rodnovers.- Blood Brothers or Blood Enemies: Ukrainian Pagans’ Beliefs and Responses to the Ukraine-Russia Crisis.- Canaanite Reconstructionism among Contemporary Israeli Pagans.- Pagan Identity Politics, Witchcraft, and the Law: Encounters with Postcolonial Nationalism in Democratic South Africa.- Cosmopolitan Witchcraft: Reinventing the Wheel of the Year in Australian Paganism.- Cosmopolitanism, Neo-Shamans, and Contemporary Māori Healers in New Zealand.- The Spirits are Cosmopolitan too: Contemporary Shamanism in Malta.

Provides a cutting edge study of modern Paganisms. Examines how cosmopolitanism and nationalism have both influenced the weaving of local Paganisms in diverse contexts. Based on international case studies from the United States, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Malta.