Download or read book Christian Mythology written by Philippe Walter and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-11-20 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals how Christian mythology has more to do with long-standing pagan traditions than the Bible • Explains how the church fathers knowingly incorporated pagan elements into the Christian faith to ease the transition to the new religion • Identifies pagan deities that were incorporated into each of the saints • Shows how all the major holidays in the Christian calendar are modeled on pagan rituals and myths, including Easter and Christmas In this extensive study of the Christian mythology that animated Europe in the Middle Ages, author Philippe Walter reveals how these stories and the holiday traditions connected with them are based on long-standing pagan rituals and myths and have very little connection to the Bible. The author explains how the church fathers knowingly incorporated pagan elements into the Christian faith to ease the transition to the new religion. Rather than tear down the pagan temples in Britain, Pope Gregory the Great advised Saint Augustine of Canterbury to add the pagan rituals into the mix of Christian practices and transform the pagan temples into churches. Instead of religious conversion, it was simply a matter of convincing the populace to include Jesus in their current religious practices. Providing extensive documentation, Walter shows which major calendar days of the Christian year are founded on pagan rituals and myths, including the high holidays of Easter and Christmas. Examining hagiographic accounts of the saints, he reveals the origin of these symbolic figures in the deities worshipped in pagan Europe for centuries. He also explores how the identities of saints and pagan figures became so intermingled that some saints were transformed into pagan incarnations, such as Mary Magdalene’s conversion into one of the Celtic Ladies of the Lake. In revealing the pagan roots of many Christian figures, stories, and rituals, Walter provides a new understanding of the evolution of religious belief.
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the Christian Myth written by Burton L. Mack and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the culmination of a lifelong scholarly inquiry into Christian history, religion as a social institution, and the role of myth in the history of religions. Mack shows that religions are essentially mythological and that Christianity in particular has been an ever-changing mythological engine of social formation, from Roman times to its distinct American expression in our time. The author traces the cultural influence of the Christian myth that has persisted for sixteen hundred years but now should be much less consequential in our social and cultural life, since it runs counter to our democratic ideals. We stand at a critical impasse: badly splintered by conflicting groups pursuing their own social interests, a binding common myth needs to be established by renewing a truly cohesive national and international story rooted in our democratic and egalitarian origins, committed to freedom, equality, and vital human values.
Download or read book Christian Mythology written by George Every and published by Hamlyn (UK). This book was released on 1970-01-01 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elaborately illustrated text depicts various legends and superstitious beliefs surrounding the Old and New Testaments.
Download or read book Christian Mythology for Kids written by Chrystine Trooien and published by Mascot Books. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The famous Bible stories are explored through a secular lens, providing secular families a guide to modern Christianity."--Publisher website.
Download or read book Myth and Ritual In Christianity written by Alan Watts and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 1971-06-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Our main object will be to describe one of the most incomparably beautiful myths that has ever flowered from the mind of man, or from the unconscious processes which shape it and which are in some sense more than man.… This is, furthermore, to be a description and not a history of Christian Mythology.… After description, we shall attempt an interpretation of the myth along the general lines of the philosophia perennis, in order to bring out the truly catholic or universal character of the symbols, and to share the delight of discovering a fountain of wisdom in a realm where so many have long ceased to expect anything but a desert of platitudes.” —from the Prologue
Download or read book The Christian Mythology written by Brigham Leatherbee and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: That Christianity, as to-day presented by the orthodox, is far different from the Christianity promulgated by the early fathers, few are so blinded as to doubt. Christianity, like all other religions, came not into the world full-grown, but from the simple conceptions of its early followers became gradually elaborated by the introduction of pagan forms and customs until it supplanted its early rivals and gave its adherents a compact and solid theology not very different from that of its predecessors. However, before considering the genealogy of Christianity, or its heirlooms from paganism, let us turn our attention to what were presumably the beginnings of the religious views of mankind. Probably the true source of that human characteristic which is defined as the religious instinct and which is supposed to be an elevating and moral agent, is to be found in the superstition which originated in fear of the unknown. The first ages of human life were so devoted to the animal needs that little attention was given to anything else, but later the craving for protection and help from some power greater than himself led primitive man to look about him for something to sustain and aid him in his struggle for existence. Surrounded by natural phenomena of which he could give no explanation satisfactory to his experience, he came to the conclusion that he was in an environment permeated with bodiless intelligences who governed these matters by supernatural power. Awed to fear by the inexplicable workings of nature, he sought to propitiate the spiritual agencies by bribes, and he did all things for them which he thought would be agreeable to them to keep them in good-natured interest or indifference toward him. And, naturally, he considered that what would be pleasing to himself would be pleasing to them. Therefore, his offerings and his conduct towards these spirits were such as he would have desired shown toward himself. Death and its imitation, sleep, being the greatest mysteries confronting him, he naturally began to consider the spirits of the dead, with whom he seemed to have intercourse in his dreams, as being influential factors in his career; and thus originated ancestor-worship with its highly-developed rites and sacrifices, which in a modified form still exists in the Roman church in the practice of reading masses for the souls of the dead. At the same time, noticing the great benefits derived from the warmth of the sun, to whose rays he owed his subsistence and whose glorious and awful presence was constantly before him, man began to feel grateful to that mighty power which was the source of all his welfare, and, appreciating that all terrestrial life depended upon it, he came to recognize it as the great creative power.
Download or read book The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth written by John Marco Allegro and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Christianity and Mythology written by John Mackinnon Robertson and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Christian Mythology written by E. B. Leatherbee and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Christian Mythology is a study on the Christian folklore and how much the heathen rituals influenced the development of a certain version of Christianity in different parts of the world. The goal of the work was to show that the modern religion doesn't offer much new or different from what has been believed in the many epochs of the past. Religious feelings of primitive man were driven by fear and superstition and the various forms of worship predominated in different geographical situations. Christianity, like all primitive or modern religions leans on the ancient myths and legends, taking a somewhat different version in various geographical locations, but with the same form as every religious system.
Download or read book The Myth of a Christian Nation written by Gregory A. Boyd and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2009-05-18 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The church was established to serve the world with Christ-like love, not to rule the world. It is called to look like a corporate Jesus, dying on the cross for those who crucified him, not a religious version of Caesar. It is called to manifest the kingdom of the cross in contrast to the kingdom of the sword. Whenever the church has succeeded in gaining what most American evangelicals are now trying to get – political power – it has been disastrous both for the church and the culture. Whenever the church picks up the sword, it lays down the cross. The present activity of the religious right is destroying the heart and soul of the evangelical church and destroying its unique witness to the world. The church is to have a political voice, but we are to have it the way Jesus had it: by manifesting an alternative to the political, “power over,” way of doing life. We are to transform the world by being willing to suffer for others – exercising “power under,” not by getting our way in society – exercising “power over.”
Download or read book The Myth of Christian Beginnings written by Robert L. Wilken and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2009-05-04 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this challenging and vividly written book Dr. Wilken shows that there never was a golden age in the Christian past. Christian hope did not come to fulfillment in the age of apostles, nor in the time of Constantine, nor in the Middle Ages, nor during the Reformation, nor in the revivals of the 19th century, nor in the movements of renewal in our own time. The history of Christianity is a story of imperfection and fragmentation, but also a history of hoping and striving for an end that cannot be seen yet bears on the present. With lively examples from the Christian past Wilken shows that change has been an abiding feature of Christian tradition. Often those who proposed new ways of thinking and acted in unexpected ways turned out to be more faithful than those who repeated the old formulas. As much as the past may give specificity and concreteness to renewal in the present Christian hope is set on things that are yet to be.
Download or read book Christian Demonology and Popular Mythology written by Gábor Klaniczay and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2006-10-10 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second volume of a series of three, containing seventeen essays of altogether forty-three articles based on the topics of the interdisciplinary conference held on "Demons, spirits, and witches" in Budapest. Recognized historians, ethnologists, folklorists coming from four continents present the latest research findings on the relationship, coexistence and conflicts of popular belief systems, Judeo-Christian mythology and demonology in medieval and modern Europe. After a first volume, published in 2005, on "Communicating with the Spirits", the studies in the present volume examine the manifold interchanges between learned and popular culture, and its repercussions on magical belief-system and the changing figure of the witch. Book jacket.
Download or read book Influences of Pre Christian Mythology and Christianity on Old Norse Poetry written by Andrew McGillivray and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Eddic poem Vafþrúðnismál serves as a representation of early pagan beliefs or myths and as a myth itself; the poem performs both of these functions, acting as a poetic framework and functioning as sacred myth. In this study, the author looks closely at the journey of the Norse god Óðinn to the hall of the ancient and wise giant Vafþrúðnir, where Óðinn craftily engages his adversary in a life-or-death contest in knowledge.
Download or read book Shattering the Christ Myth written by James Patrick Holding and published by Xulon Press. This book was released on 2008-06 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How To Get Rid of Jesus: Prove He Didn't Exist! A popular question posed by Christians today asks, "WWJD?" - which stands for, "What Would Jesus Do?" For more and more Skeptics of Christianity, however, the answer to this question is, "JDNE" - which stands for, "Jesus did not exist!" In this volume, edited by prominent Internet apologist James Patrick Holding, a team of Christian authors provide a series of essays giving detailed answers to those who argue for the "Christ myth." Though rejected by mainstream scholars, this theory continues to grow in popularity among popular writers and Internet antagonists. The need for Christians to be ready to give an answer to it will only become more urgent. "Here's a clear and compelling rebuttal to fallacious claims that keep resurfacing in books and on the Internet. It's well-researched, expertly presented, and ultimately convincing." - Lee Strobel, author, The Case for the Real Jesus
Download or read book The Birth of Christianity written by Joel Carmichael and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This challenging study reassesses the roles of Jesus and Paul as the founders of Christianity, in light of the contemporary Kingdom of God agitations against Rome.
Download or read book Cold Case Christianity written by J. Warner Wallace and published by David C Cook. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by an L. A. County homicide detective and former atheist, Cold-Case Christianity examines the claims of the New Testament using the skills and strategies of a hard-to-convince criminal investigator. Christianity could be defined as a “cold case”: it makes a claim about an event from the distant past for which there is little forensic evidence. In Cold-Case Christianity, J. Warner Wallace uses his nationally recognized skills as a homicide detective to look at the evidence and eyewitnesses behind Christian beliefs. Including gripping stories from his career and the visual techniques he developed in the courtroom, Wallace uses illustration to examine the powerful evidence that validates the claims of Christianity. A unique apologetic that speaks to readers’ intense interest in detective stories, Cold-Case Christianity inspires readers to have confidence in Christ as it prepares them to articulate the case for Christianity.
Download or read book Hymns and the Christian Myth written by Lionel Adey and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From its beginnings in the Bible, Christian hymnology has fulfilled three functions -- praise, recital and teaching of the Myth, and collective and personal adoration as well as the foundation and worship of the church. In Hymns and the Christian Myth, Lionel Adey demonstrates that over the centuries shifts emphasizing particular elements of the Christian faith accord with the interests and concerns of the times in which the hymns were composed.
