quote:
Originally posted by fable:
And it happened in Christianity long before they were elevated to the state religion of the Roman Empire. One reads in Gibbon, for example, that the Christians drew much hatred and scorn upon themselves by their active bigotry: they would regularly go to nearby "pagan" temples on a rampage, and destroy them. It was the size and popularity of the cult (especially its cultivation of the poor) that prevented the application of much restraint on the Christian cult, at least, after Nero's reign.
[ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: fable ]
Fable, it is worth bearing in mind before you quote Gibbon that he was writing more than a thousand years after the event, interpreting the Roman historians in his own way. Since there is plenty of Roman literature still available (including many of the historians used by Gibbon), it might have been better to use an example from something more contemporary [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Well, it is true to some extent that the early church distanced itself from pagan belief, but it is also the case that many pagan shrines were turned into christian churches in order to integrate the local populations, local pagan priests were converted and turned into saints, and pagan mythology and belief was integrated into Christianity (Saint Brigit?)
Christianity in Mexico is a good example of how Christianity has managed to adapt to absorb non-Christian tradition in an attempt (largely successful) to win over the pagan population - day of the dead (and you can't get more pagan than that) is celebrated with as much gusto as is any Christian festival.
Easter is a pagan celebration which has been kidnapped by Christianity, as is Christmas.
