SC - Pagan dieties vs. Christain Saints/ religious anthropology
Kay Loidolt
mmkl at indy.net
Sat Mar 18 06:35:55 PST 2000
Johann von Metten writes:
First, I apologize for taking this off topic and if anyone wants to
continue a 'NON-Flaming' discussion of various religious anthropological
topics, please respond privately.
By education and profession I'm a anthropologist and a Church
historian. (I hold a Masters in both)
There is often a lot of confusion regarding 'pagan' god(esses) being
'made' into christian saints. In the case of not only Brigid, but also
Thor, Frieda and Lugh, there are several saints called by these
undeniable pre-christian names!! How? Why? The average person without
study, may indeed simply ascribe this to " the church is simply taking
over old practices". Well, humans being who and what they are
(regardless of what we may think they are the same the world around)
We name our children after our ancestors and/or heroes, all of the above
names were common roots and elements of human names.
As Christianity came into contact with other cultures the new converts
brought their own names into the new Chistian context. Remember, all
'christian names' were of another culture at one point, Greek, Roman,
Celtic, etc..., the only culture this is not true of is possibly Jewish
from which Christianity sprung to begin with.
Now I grant you that there IS some coincedence between one of the
three Saint Brigids and the pagan goddess/heroine. However, we do have a
goodly amount of documentation around the one's life and death, enough
to separate the two images. That they should share the same 'miracles'
should really mean nothing as saints do often perform miracles, the
difference being concerning the how and whys of the miracles. Even if
the common people blend the two observances, should not impune that
"the Church" does.
Contrary to popular belief the Church has never been a truly
monolithic structure, as much as we would want it to be for various
reasons. The Church may strive for unity, but achieving it has always
evaded us, human unity and divine unity being two different things?
For a seemingly male dominated organization it is a common saying that
the real power in the church are the 'blue-hairs', old women who have no
fear of bishops or priests, but merely 'handle' them to achieve what
must be done!!
Pope St. Gregaory the Great was the first to approve that 'those
customs to which the people were attached before coming to the true
faith may be continued if they are wholesome and may be seen in the
light of the gospel'. Thus approving such non-mediterranean ideas as All
Saints Day/Samhain and quaterly rogation days.
It cannot be emphasized enough that 'Christianity' itself has no
culture, it is like salt or yeast, an ingredient which transforms those
dishes, cultures, it comes in contact with.
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