I'm writing a paper for my HST 105 class about Christianity's traditions and their basis in pagan traditions. Anyone know any good resources? Have any thoughts? As it's that time of year, I'm focusing on Christmas traditions. *hugs* ~*BA*~
Burton L. Mack - Who Wrote the New Testament... Doesn't really focus on pagan "roots" but discusses how the narrative and idea of Christ ase similar to Greek/Hellenistic ideas
There's a lot of stuff out there, but it's biased as all get out, either in a pro-Christian or anti-Christian direction. You've got to decide what kind of influences you're talking about. I think it's clear that some failry superficial borrowing went on. Christians are pretty open that the Bible didn't say when Christ was born, and they borrowed December 25 because it was about the time of the winter solstace clelbrated by a wide variety of pagan cults: Saturnalia, Mithras, Apollo, Horus, & Sol Invinctus. Easter comes from a pagan goddess eastre, the Great Mother. Customs like mistletoe were borrowed from the Druids, while the Yule Log is a German invention. More controversial are the claims of similarities between the miracles of Jesus and those of pagan gods, especiallly Horus, Osiris, Isis, Attis, Mithras, and Dionysis. Some scholars say the Christians ripped these stories off the pagans, others claim it was the other way around, while still others claim two-way borrowing. See Everett Ferguson, Background of Early Christianity;Lisa Ann Bargeman, The Egyptian Origins of Christianity; Leif E. Vage, Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity; Ronald Nash, The Gospel and the Greeks; Leon Mc Kenzie, Pagan Resurrection Myths and the Resurrection of Jesus; Timothy Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jeus" A Pagan God? and T.N.D.Mattinger, The Riddle of Resurrection.
Sure but learning about Rome in its entirety will give you atleast a broad idea of how christianity developed, i mean it's absolutley imperative in learning about the development of Christianity Yeah right Mithras maybe but the others, there is is no way i could see Christianity being around in time to add anything.
I would also avoid the word pagan in the paper unless it is from some source...It carried too much baggage from a Christian perspective. Example, Hionduism is caled paganism by some... And I would hardly call Zoroaster a pagan prophet...
They were "around" before Christianity, but some scholars contend that they did not have the practices and beliefs Christians were supposed to have borrowed from them until after Christianity--leaving open the possibility that they copied from the Christians.
I guess that is possible all though personaly i find it very unlikely, it would be a total reverse of the way idea's were developing.
Well alot of people would, especially because Zoroastrism is no longer practiced as far as i know. You're right that he though technically he shouldn't be thrown into that basket but he is an important figure in spiritual development that affected Christianity directly. If you want to study the outside sources that affected Christianity then you're going to have to deal with idea's that may not be considered 'pagan'. personally i think for the purpose of the OP's paper, using the term pagan is a very bad idea because it such a broad and loose term that it really has no meaning except to bundle a whole lot of old idea's together. As far as Zoroaster is concerned however, he is a good example of how the East and West mingled idea's even though they have both always been at each others throats.
Zoroastrianism is still practiced. The Parsees in India are Zoroastrians, and there are still some Zoroastrians in Iran. I knew a couple. Nice people.
Freddie Mercury was a Zoroastrian apparently... On the topic of it, I think it would be really interesting to look at that religion on later developments in Hinduism (as both are Aryan originated religions)
Wow i did not know that, i thought Islam pretty much took over the east entirely (well not all of the eastern if you know what i mean)
Thanks for all the feedback! It's a subject that's extremely interesting to me, as a psychology major. I found a great resource in the book "Pagan & Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning" by Edward Carpenter. It breaks down traditions in many religions and speculates on their origins in mankind's collective psyche. It goes into detail about how Jesus shares his birthday season (and many other aspects of his life) with other deities like Apollo, Dionysus, Hercules, Mithra, Adonis, and Osiris. Thanks for all your help! *hugs* ~*BA*~
