Since the early seventies, the ancient pre-Christian religions of Europe are receiving an ever increasing popularity. Due to the marginal number of adherents they are rarely recognised by the public. This is not detrimental, but their philosophies, concepts, and basic views are not well-known and, therefore, prone to misunderstanding and misjudgement. The main reason for this faulty perception is the lack of knowledge about the basic concepts of old and new paganism. They clearly differ from the established religions and are usually overlooked by modern monotheists and atheists. The followers of modern Nordic-Germanic paganism suffer especially from the bias of a supposedly inherent right-wing extremism. This is based on a comprehensible but clearly distorted historical perspective. This book is a translation of the German original "Aufgeklartes Heidentum" and dares to attempt the replacement of common misconceptions and ignorance with facts and insights."