heathenism

From heathen +‎ -ism, coined in the 17th century in place of the then-obsolete heathendom. First attested in Francis Bacon's Of the advancement of learning (1605), II. xiv. §9: "The heresy of the Anthropomorphites and the opinion of Epicurus, answerable to the same in heathenism, who supposed the gods to be in human shape" (OED).

heathenism (countable and uncountable, plural heathenisms)

1. paganism, heathendom
   • 1831, L E L[andon], chapter XIX, in Romance and Reality. , volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, , →OCLC, page 284:

     A woman's love is essentially lonely and spiritual in its nature—feeding on fancy, rather than hope—or like that fairy flower of the East, which floats in, and lives upon, the air. Her attachment is the heathenism of the heart: she has herself created the glory and beauty with which the idol of her altar stands invested.

   • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 11:

     Meanwhile the Christian Church from these speculations has kept itself severely apart - as of course representing a unique and divine revelation little concerned or interested in such heathenisms[.]

   • 2009, Adeline Masquelier, Women and Islamic Revival in a West African Town, Page 88

     they urge all followers of the Prophet to return to an authentic Islam, devoid of heathenism and innovations.

   Synonym: heathenship

• (religions) religion; agnosticism,‎ Asatru,‎ atheism,‎ Ayyavazhi,‎ Baháʼí Faith,‎ Bon,‎ Buddhism,‎ Cao Dai,‎ Cheondoism,‎ Christianity,‎ deism,‎ Druidry,‎ Druze,‎ Eckankar,‎ Heathenry,‎ Hinduism,‎ Islam,‎ Jainism,‎ Jediism,‎ Judaism,‎ Kimbanguism,‎ Odinism,‎ paganism,‎ Pastafarianism,‎ Raëlism,‎ Rastafarianism,‎ Rodnovery,‎ Romuva,‎ Samaritanism,‎ Sanamahism,‎ Shinto,‎ Sikhism,‎ Taoism,‎ Tengrism,‎ Thelema,‎ Unitarian Universalism,‎ Wicca,‎ Yahwism,‎ Yazidism,‎ Yoruba,‎ Zoroastrianism ^{(Category: en:Religion)}