DougP

A searched for threads about this but couldnt find quite was I was looking for. Anyway, I am looking for historical events that show links between Christianity and paganism. If possible, to be more specific, Im looking not for information such as "Eostre/Easter Connection" but historical evidence that the holiday(or other holidays/traditions/biblical things) were purposely based on pagan beliefs. Ive been researching this and any help would be great,thanks.

Ellis14

Moving to GRD.

DougP

I REALLY though I had originally posted it in GRD, my apologies.

Gregg

I dunno that you'd really find anything like a "smoking gun," like minutes of a meeting between the Church Fathers where they agreed on a strategy of changing pagan holidays into Christian ones. More likely the process took place gradually and at a grass-roots level. The ordinary folk themselves may have taken much of the initiative, incorporating Christian motifs into their ancient traditions and celebrations, with local monks and priests encouraging this or at least going along for purposes of expediency. Then after a while the Church gave its blessings to the "new," Christianized holidays.

But I'm no historian & I really don't know.

Uncle Ants

There is a very worthwhile read on the subject - Stations of the Sun by Ron Hutton. Its specifically about annual rituals and celebrations (religious and other) in the UK through the year and their origins. The book takes the reader through the year. Its a scholarly and academic (Hutton is a prof of History from the Univ. of Bristol) rather than sensationalist but a good read all the same.

DougP

Thanks, ill be looking into this one right away

Berthold

Just some miscellaneous facts of history:
Pontifex maximus was the supreme pagan priest of Rome. Somehow the Pope inherited this title.
Christmas coincides roughly with the winter solstice. This was introduced when Christianity moved to Central Europe ( the real birthday of Jesus is unknown and cannot be found in the Bible ). The winter solstice, on the other hand, is a significant date for all people who live in cool climates.
Ephesus is a place of worship of Artemis and Mary ( both divine virgins ).
Gods who die and are resurrected are a recurrent theme in various religions. If I recall correctly, Mithras, a very popular god of the late Roman empire, was such a god.
German author Karlheinz Deschner collected many more details in his excellent book "Der gefälschte Glaube" ( "The forged [ falsified, counterfeit, plagiarized ] faith" ). I do not know, though, if it has been been translated into English.
Also the books of Peter de Rosa, a "renegade" theologian, may contain useful information.

Toto

Be careful with this topic. There is a lot of misinformation about pagan influences on Christianity floating around. There clearly was a lot of influence, but some claims of pagan influence cannot be supported, especially in regard to Mithras.

You will find a lot of information in the Biblical Criticism and History forum. (I think this topic might get more response there.)

Are you interested in pagan influences on the origins of Christianity or later influences? The first topic is controversial but you might was to look at Pagan Christ. (Not to be confused with a book by the same name by the Canadian religious writer, Tom Harpur.)

Later pagan influences on the church under Constantine are fairly well documented.

Avatar

This is going to sound bizarre, but I at one point found some of the sort of data you may be looking for in an RPG (role-playing game).

Steve Jackson and his crew created GURPS (Genereic Universal Roleplaying System), and a number of writers have contributed a long series of suppliments. An interesting characteristic of these game suppliments is that the creators seriously research their subject matter and have a gift for presenting their research in simple terms.

A particularly long suppliment to the game was entitled "Religion", and a very large section of the book contained a lot of historical information of real-life religions...including a history of the development and "evolution" of the Christian faith and the influences on it.

If you can find it, the book might be worth checking out.

DougP

Im looking for pagan influences on the origins of it maily, but later influences are also good. Thanks for the link,