Construction of (not only) pagan identity in the late modernity

Modernity, characterized by many macrosocial processes like secularization, rationalization but also initiatives supporting the so-called re-enchantment of the world, made religion undergo radical transformations, changing its role in individual biographies. Due to religious plurality and freedom, people engage in spiritual practices in a creative, explorative, and eclectic manner. I discuss how are religious identities constructed in the era of late modernity, and, with a focus on modern paganism, I explore the conversion rhetoric via the lenses of narrational approach to identity building. I also describe how paganism provides meanings, symbolism, and language for a biographical reconstruction of identity. My main argument is that adopting religious identity can be a reflectional, rational, and active act of identical and biographical transformation which stands in opposition to the classical concept of conversion as a passive external event.Modernity, characterized by many macrosocial processes like secularization, rationalization but also initiatives supporting the so-called re-enchantment of the world, made religion undergo radical transformations, changing its role in individual biographies. Due to religious plurality and freedom, people engage in spiritual practices in a creative, explorative, and eclectic manner. I discuss how are religious identities constructed in the era of late modernity, and, with a focus on modern paganism, I explore the conversion rhetoric via the lenses of narrational approach to identity building. I also describe how paganism provides meanings, symbolism, and language for a biographical reconstruction of identity. My main argument is that adopting religious identity can be a reflectional, rational, and active act of identical and biographical transformation which stands in opposition to the classical concept of conversion as a passive external event