Heathenry, also termed Heathenism, contemporary Germanic Paganism, or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religious studies classify it as a new religious movement. Developed in Europe during the early 20th century, its practitioners model it on the pre-Christian belief systems adhered to by the Germanic peoples of the Iron Age and Early Middle Ages. In an attempt to reconstruct these past belief systems, Heathenry uses surviving historical, archaeological, and folkloric evidence as a basis, although approaches to this material vary considerably.

Heathenry does not have a unified theology but is typically polytheistic, centering on a pantheon of deities from pre-Christian Germanic Europe. It adopts cosmological views from these past societies, including an animistic view of the cosmos in which the natural world is imbued with spirits. The religion's deities and spirits are honored in sacrificial rites known as blóts in which food and libations are offered to them. These are often accompanied by symbel, the act of ceremonially toasting the gods with an alcoholic beverage. Some practitioners also engage in rituals designed to induce an altered state of consciousness and visions, most notably seiðr and galdr, with the intent of gaining wisdom and advice from the deities. Many solitary practitioners follow the religion by themselves. Other Heathens assemble in small groups, usually known as kindreds or hearths, to perform their rites outdoors or in specially constructed buildings. Heathen ethical systems emphasize honor, personal integrity, and loyalty, while beliefs about an afterlife vary and are rarely emphasized.

Heathenry's origins lie in the 19th- and early 20th-century Romanticism, which glorified the pre-Christian societies of Germanic Europe. Völkisch groups actively venerating the deities of these societies appeared in Germany and Austria during the 1900s and 1910s, although they largely dissolved following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II. In the 1970s, new Heathen groups established in Europe and North America, developing into formalized organizations. A central division within the Heathen movement emerged surrounding the issue of race. Older groups adopted a racialist attitude—often termed "folkish" within the community—by viewing Heathenry as an ethnic or racial religion with inherent links to a Germanic race. They believe it should be reserved for white people, particularly of Northern European descent, and often combine the religion with white supremacist and far right-wing perspectives. A larger proportion of Heathens instead adopt a "universalist" perspective, holding that the religion is open to all, irrespective of origin.

While the term Heathenry is used widely to describe the religion as a whole, many groups prefer different designations, influenced by their regional focus and ideological preferences. Heathens focusing on Scandinavian sources sometimes use Ásatrú, Vanatrú, or Forn Sed; practitioners focusing on Anglo-Saxon traditions use Fyrnsidu or Theodism; those emphasising German traditions use Irminism; and those Heathens who espouse folkish and far-right perspectives tend to favor the terms Odinism, Wotanism, Wodenism, or Odalism. Scholarly estimates put the number of Heathens at no more than 20,000 worldwide, with communities of practitioners active in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia.

The question of race represents a major source of division among Heathens, particularly in the United States.[207] Within the Heathen community, one viewpoint holds that race is entirely a matter of biological heredity, while the opposing position is that race is a social construct rooted in cultural heritage. In U.S. Heathen discourse, these viewpoints are described as the folkish and the universalist positions, respectively.[208] These two factions—which Kaplan termed the "racialist" and "nonracialist" camps—often clash, with Kaplan claiming that a "virtual civil war" existed between them within the American Heathen community.[209] The universalist and folkish division has also spread to other countries;[210] in contrast to North America and much of Northern Europe, discussions of race rarely arise among the Icelandic Heathen community as a result of the nation-state's predominantly ethnically homogeneous composition.[211] A 2015 survey revealed a greater number of Heathens subscribed to universalist ideas than folkish ones.[212]

Contrasting with this binary division, Gardell divides Heathenry in the United States into three groups according to their stances on the issue of race: the "anti-racist" group which denounces any association between the religion and racial identity, the "radical racist" faction which sees it as the natural religion of the Aryan race that cannot rightly be followed by members of any other racial group, and the "ethnic" faction which seeks a middle-path by acknowledging the religion's roots in Northern Europe and its connection with those of Northern European heritage.[206] The religious studies scholar Egil Asprem deemed Gardell's threefold typology "indispensable in order to make sense of the diverging positions within the broader discourse" of Heathenry.[213] The religious studies scholar Stefanie von Schnurbein also adopted this tripartite division, although she referred to the groups as the "racial-religious", "a-racist", and "ethnicist" factions respectively.[214] The scholar of religion Ethan Doyle White instead returned to the dual division between the "universalist" and "folkish" groups, arguing that the latter could be subdivided among the "ethnicist" and "racial-religious" factions, both of whom "deem Heathenry to be a religion geared for a particular racial or ethno-cultural group (whether conceptualised as 'Nordic,' 'white,' or 'Aryan')".[215]

Exponents of the universalist, anti-racist approach believe that the deities of Northern Europe can call anyone to their worship, regardless of ethnic background.[216] This group rejects the folkish emphasis on race, believing that even if unintended, it can lead to the adoption of racist attitudes toward those of non-Northern European ancestry.[217] Universalist practitioners such as Stephan Grundy have emphasized the fact that ancient Northern Europeans were known to marry and have children with members of other ethnic groups, and that in Norse mythology the Æsir also did the same with Vanir, Jötun, and humans, thus using such points to critique the racialist view.[218] Universalists welcome practitioners of Heathenry who are not of Northern European ancestry; for instance, there are Jewish and African American members of the U.S.-based Troth, while many of its white members are married to spouses from different racial groups.[219] While sometimes retaining the idea of Heathenry as an indigenous religion, proponents of this view have sometimes argued that Heathenry is indigenous to the land of Northern Europe, rather than indigenous to any specific race.[220]

The folkish sector of the movement deems Heathenry to be the indigenous religion of a biologically distinct Nordic race.[124] Some practitioners explain this by asserting that the religion is intrinsically connected to the collective unconscious of this race,[221] with prominent American Heathen Stephen McNallen developing this into a concept which he termed "metagenetics".[222] McNallen and many others in the "ethnic" faction of Heathenry explicitly deny that they are racist, although Gardell noted that their views would be deemed racist under certain definitions of the word.[223] Gardell considered many "ethnic" Heathens to be ethnic nationalists,[224] and many folkish practitioners express disapproval of multiculturalism and the mixture of different races in modern Europe, advocating racial separatism.[124] This group's discourse contains much talk of "ancestors" and "homelands", concepts that may be very vaguely defined.[225] Those adopting the "ethnic" folkish position have been criticized by both universalist and ethno-centrist factions, the former deeming "ethnic" Heathenry a front for racism and the latter deeming its adherents race traitors for their failure to fully embrace white supremacism.[226]

Some folkish Heathens are white supremacists and explicit racists,[227] representing a "radical racist" faction that favours the terms Odinism, Wotanism, and Wodenism.[228] Kaplan stated that the "borderline separating racialist Odinism and National Socialism is exceedingly thin",[229] adding that this racialist wing inhabited "the most distant reaches" of the modern Pagan movement.[230] The historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke similarly stated that Odinism "represents the battlefront of racist paganism in support of a white Aryan revolutionary path".[231] Practitioners in this sector of the religion have paid tribute to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany,[229] claimed that the white race is facing extinction at the hands of a Jewish world conspiracy,[232] and rejected Christianity as a creation of the Jews.[231] Several such groups, like the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) and the Wolves of Vinland, are designated as hate groups by the U.S. Southern Poverty Law Center.[233] Many in the inner circle of The Order, a white supremacist militant group active in the U.S. during the 1980s, described themselves as Odinists,[234] and various racist Heathens have espoused the Fourteen Words slogan developed by the Wotanist and Order member David Lane.[235] Some racist organisations, such as the Order of Nine Angles and the Black Order, combine elements of Heathenism with Satanism,[236] although other racist Heathens, such as Wotansvolk's Ron McVan, have denounced the integration of these differing religious traditions.[237]

Ethno-centrist Heathens are heavily critical of their universalist counterparts, often declaring that the latter have been misled by New Age literature and political correctness.[238] Snook stated that both mainstream media and early academic studies of American Heathenry had focused primarily on the racist elements within the movement, thus neglecting the religion's anti-racist wing.[239] Many anti-racist practitioners have expressed frustration that Heathenry is misrepresented by some journalists and academics as a racist movement,[240] using their online presence to stress their opposition to extreme-right politics.[241]