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The Triumph of Christianity over Paganism, a painting by Gustave Doré (1899). Paganism is commonly used to refer to various religions that existed during Antiquity and the Middle Ages, such as the Greco-Roman religions of the Roman Empire, including the Roman imperial cult, the various mystery religions, religious philosophies such as Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and more localized ethnic ...
Christo-Paganism is a set of beliefs held by some neopagans that encompasses Christian teachings. Christo-Pagans may identify as witches, [ 1 ] [ 2 ] druids , [ 3 ] [ 4 ] or animists. [ 5 ] Most, but not all, worship the Christian God . [ 1 ]
[134] [135] This does not in any way indicate that Christianity itself was derived from paganism, [134] only that early Christians made use of the pre-existing symbols that were readily available in their society. [134] Sometimes Christians deliberately used pagan iconography in conscious effort to show Jesus as superior to the pagan gods. [136]
That a pagan like Clovis could ask Christ for help shows the adaptability of Germanic polytheism. In the polytheistic Germanic tradition, "if Odin failed, one absolutely could try it with Christ for once." [23] The Christian sense of religious exclusivism was unknown to the pagans. As a result, pagans could be pragmatic and almost utilitarian ...
Ritual sacrifice was an integral part of ancient Greco-Roman religion [4] and was regarded as an indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian. [4] Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry". [1] [5] During and after the Middle Ages, the term paganism was applied to any non-Christian religion, and the term presumed a ...
The Christianization of the Germanic peoples was a long process during which there are many textual and archaeological examples of the co-existence and sometimes mixture of pagan and Christian worship and ideas. [51] Christian sources frequently equate Germanic gods with demons and forms of the devil (Interpretatio Christiana). [52]
For many earlier historians, this created the impression of on–going violent conflict between pagans and Christians on an empire-wide scale with the destruction of the Serapeum being only one example of many temples having been destroyed by Christians. [197] Temple of Hathor, Dark interior, Dendera, Egypt. Original construction is estimated ...
This latter view contends that there was less conflict between pagans and Christians than was previously supposed. [13] In the twenty-first century, the idea that Christianity became dominant through conflict with paganism has become marginalized, while a grassroots theory has developed. [14] [15]