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Virtuous pagan is a concept in Christian theology that addressed the fate of the unlearned—the issue of nonbelievers who were never evangelized and consequently during their lifetime had no opportunity to recognize Christ, but nevertheless led virtuous lives, so that it seemed objectionable to consider them damned.
In this era, stories purporting to prove the truth of Christianity from virtuous pagan sources or pagan seers were popular among Christians, such as the Sibylline Oracles. Additionally, Heyden suggests the depiction of Hera and her multiple names seems as if it might be a good analogue for the cult of Atargatis , a Syrian goddess identified ...
Neatly divided into a triad of triads, these men were considered to be paragons of chivalry within their particular traditions, whether Pagan, Jewish, or Christian. Longuyon's choices soon became a common theme in the literature and art of the Middle Ages and earned a permanent place in the popular consciousness.
Efforts to relate the cardinal and theological virtues differ. Augustine sees faith as coming under justice. Beginning with a wry comment about the moral mischief of pagan deities, he writes: They [the pagans] have made Virtue also a goddess, which, indeed, if it could be a goddess, had been preferable to many.
They are supposedly based on virtues found in historical Norse paganism, gleaned from various sources including the Poetic Edda (particularly the Hávamál and the Sigrdrífumál), [3] and as evident in the Icelandic Sagas). The Nine Charges are a different list of more explicitly phrased moral or ethical guidelines codified at about the same ...
The story of Lucretia was a popular moral tale in the later Middle Ages. Lucretia appears to Dante in the section of Limbo, reserved for the nobles of Rome and other "virtuous pagans", in Canto IV of the Inferno. Christine de Pizan used Lucretia, just as St. Augustine of Hippo did, in her City of Ladies, defending a woman's sanctity.
The notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition. As such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense.
Anonymous Christian is the controversial Christian doctrine concerning the fate of the unlearned which was introduced by the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner (1904–1984) that declares that all individuals, who sincerely seek truth and goodness, and strive to follow the moral truths they know, can respond positively to God's grace, albeit unknowingly or indirectly, even if they do so through ...