The Paganization of Christianity

[dignitized]

A common thread amongst many of the "new" denominations/sects/interpretations of the Christian faith is the claim that between the first and third centuries the Christian faith was corrupted by paganism and lost to the world until this group or that group rediscovered the truth.

They often site the holidays of Easter or Christmas or the observance of Sunday worship as proof of their claims. Never mind that none of those claims is in anyway based in facts: to believe that Easter is a pagan holiday because it takes on a similarity to the name of a Celtic pagan goddess, you must ignore that the holiday is only called Easter in English speaking countries and dates to the beginning of the church; to believe that Sunday was a pagan holiday you have to ignore the fact that the romans NEVER kept a weekly holy day their festivals were ALL monthly; or to believe that Christmas is pagan you have to ignore that it was celebrated in the Middle East long before Christianity came to Germany where the pagan holiday it is reputed to replace originates.

I would like to discuss any evidence anyone cares to offer for how the Christian faith has been paganized.

 

[PaladinValer]

It has adopted some Pagan ideas and customed and Christianized them, but the actual "essence" of those days is purely Christian. The Christianized elements are an after thought to help new converts as well as non-Christians learn about what Christians believe and to understand them. It is also to help Christianity "adapt" in a new cultural area.

 

[dignitized]

Adaptation and Christinization are not the issue. What amazes me are those who claim that the process was the reverse.

 

[PaladinValer]

So let them and be secure in the knowledge that they are incorrect.

 

[dignitized]

Now what kind of fun would that be?

 

[PaladinValer]

Depends on how much you want to risk for a headache

 

[dignitized]

The pain usually developes a bit lower on my body . . .

 

[PaladinValer]

O.O

Cute!

 

[StAnselm]

They often cite the holidays of Easter or Christmas or the observance of Sunday worship as proof of their claims.

And use of the word "hell"...

 

[SolomonVII]

I don't see in the history of Christianity the paganization of Christian ideals. In fact, quite the opposite, what we see is the gradual Christianization of pagan ideals.

It is very possible, for example, that Marian devotions were at first a continuation of goddess of fertility/Mother Earth practices. Pagans recieved the message of Christianity according to their own expectations and understandings.

How could they possibly do otherwise?

Over time however, the firgure of Mary becomes humanized, historicized and focussed on her Son in the minds of the former pagans. The orginal fertility myths and practices become forgotten and the Gospel fills any void with its myth-destroying message of freedom.

 

[Maximus]

And use of the word "hell"...

That isn't an example of "paganization."

It is an example of the adaptation of language.

The English/Germanic word hell (from the Germanic goddess of the Underworld, Hel) is used to signify the place or state of eternal torment of the damned in Christian teaching.

The word itself is used to signify a Christian doctrine, but none of the original pagan meaning was carried over into Christian thought.

 

[dignitized]

There are many examples of words applied to Christian concepts where the word itself can be connected to something pagan - but that mean that something pagan has entered the faith? Nope. And yet there are people out there who maintain that Sunday worship is pagan, Easter is pagan, Christmas is pagan, and the ignore the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

 

[Philip]

People never seem to mind that St John co-oped and Christianized the pagan concept of the Logos of God.

 

[SolomonVII]

People never seem to mind that St John co-oped and Christianized the pagan concept of the Logos of God.

You know, this is a very good point. Among the Greeks, logos is cosmic reason, or the divine force that structures the universe. For the Jews, the Logos of God is the Word of God, and recalls that God creates the entire universe merely through the use of the word "Be!".

Cultural differences between Greek and Jewish worldviews were immense. With evangelisaton to the corners of the earth beign the apostle's commission, they were faced with the task of relating the revelation of Christ and the Old Testament through terms that could be understood by people outside the cofines of ancient Israel.

The Gospels definitely show how the apostles were able to penetrate the walls of the graeco-roman world by expressing the ancient message of the Hebrews in terms that the pagans could understand. Later similar success was had with the introduction of the gospel to the germanic tribes.

Today we face a simialr task with other peoples of the world. Like Paul distingusihing between strictly Jewish practice such as circumcision and what yet was essential to the revelation of God to the Hebrew people, today we too must discern between what is purely of European ethnocentrism and of European culture, and what in the message is of God.

Like John (and Paul) it is important to understand who it is that we are delivering the gospel to, and respect those aspects of our 'unknown God' that they already possess in their own worldviews.

 

[davidoffinland]

From Finland.

Some people would like to relate how paganism influenced christianity. Perhaps in later centuries post-christian theology adopted the christmas & Easter connection. But, these people have forgotten or have not study that it was really Grecian philosophy via Hellentistic Judaism the change. Grecian philosophy influenced Hellentistic Judaism, etc and a good site to see this is the Logos/Word connection of Philo of Alexandria.

http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/p/philo.htm#H11

Remember the church was influenced by the Alexandrian church fathers who were educated in philosophy.

For now,
David.

 

[ScottBot]

As I've heard it said before, i prefer to call it the Christianization of paganism.

 

[dignitized]

The people who hold to the notion that Christianity was paganized do so to support their claims that they alone hold the true faith in one of the many errors that the undivided church refuted. I guess it lets them feel far superior and more holy than those of us who do not buy into their errors.

 

[JVAC]

People never seem to mind that St John co-oped and Christianized the pagan concept of the Logos of God.

That is a very good comment! Not only did St John use pagan concepts, but as was addressed above, Jesus spoke about hell using helenized terms of "Hades" and "Tarturus". I don't see any evangelicals screaming about those.

Basically what really matters is the Holy Church, has the power to make anything it likes christological. This is proven by the Apostle Paul, who grabs old testament and uses it such, even if he is mis quoting it. The important message is Jesus. The same can be said of that holy man St Jude, who used the apocraphal account of Enoch in his pious letter. The Church is concerned with the promulgation of the Faith and will use what ever it can to do that. After all her husband is Lord of all the earth.

-James

 

[dignitized]

That is a very good comment! Not only did St John use pagan concepts, but as was addressed above, Jesus spoke about hell using helenized terms of "Hades" and "Tarturus". I don't see any evangelicals screaming about those.

Basically what really matters is the Holy Church, has the power to make anything it likes christological. This is proven by the Apostle Paul, who grabs old testament and uses it such, even if he is mis quoting it. The important message is Jesus. The same can be said of that holy man St Jude, who used the apocraphal account of Enoch in his pious letter. The Church is concerned with the promulgation of the Faith and will use what ever it can to do that. After all her husband is Lord of all the earth.

-James

I don't think Anoch is apocraphal - there is an apocraphal text called enoch yes, but it has been corrupted - but lost. In fact I believe that there are over 60 texts quoted by and refered to in scripture that are just no longer in existance - at least not in a pure form.

 

[mark kennedy]

What is being discussed as the 'paganization' of Christianity is really just the 'Hellenization' of Christianity. There were attempts at the paganization of Christianity through the Gnostics and some of the Roman influences, indulgences and Catholic mysticism. They all came to light in time and were never adopted by the church at large, mainly because the Scriptures give us a standard (canon) for effectivly striping pagan influences from our theology.