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Reconstructionism as Method is formally linked to four religions in this atlas: Heathenry, Hellenic Polytheism (Hellenismos), Kemeticism and Slavic Native Faith (Rodnovery). Its own description is written from Hellenismos's own practice, and the other three religions' own links each carry a note naming their own evidence base in turn.

The Method, Stated From Its Clearest Case

Hellenismos's own account states the method directly: practitioners "work from the Homeric and Orphic Hymns, from Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days, from inscriptions recording festival calendars and cult regulations, and from the wider corpus of classical scholarship on Greek religious practice, treating this evidence base as the standard against which a modern rite is judged legitimate rather than inventing new liturgy from personal inspiration." The atlas names what this costs: "the reconstruction is built out of gaps as much as evidence, since the ancient cult it revives left no continuous line of practitioners and ended, by most historical accounts, well over a thousand years before the modern revival began."

Three More Traditions, Naming Their Own Evidence

Heathenry's own note states that it "applies the same evidentiary discipline to the Eddic, saga and archaeological record." Kemeticism's own note states that it "rebuilds practice from the Egyptological record, surviving hymns and ritual texts, and the archaeology." Both name a body of primary evidence in the same shape Hellenismos names its own. Slavic Native Faith is the honest exception: its own note does not claim the evidence is adequate, stating instead that it "reconstructs from folklore, chronicle notices and archaeology, and the thinness of that evidence base is the movement's central methodological problem." Three religions hold the same method as a strength; the fourth names its own weakest link rather than its strongest.

Where To Read More

• Reconstructionism as MethodOther DoctrinesThe method itself; four religions counted, three naming strong evidence and one naming its own weakest link
• HeathenryPolytheistic (Historical/Revived)Applies the same evidentiary discipline to the Eddic, saga and archaeological record
• Hellenic Polytheism (Hellenismos)Polytheistic (Historical/Revived)The clearest case; the description is written from its own practice
• KemeticismPolytheistic (Historical/Revived)Rebuilds practice from the Egyptological record, surviving hymns and ritual texts, and archaeology
• Slavic Native Faith (Rodnovery)Polytheistic (Historical/Revived)The honest exception: names the thinness of its own evidence base as its central methodological problem