Christianization

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St Francis Xavier converting the Paravas: a 19th-century image of the docile heathen

Ansgar, the 9th century "apostle of the North" in an 1830 drawing.

The historical phenomenon of Christianization, the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once (a political shift as much as a spontaneous mass shift in individual consciences), also includes the practice of converting pagan cult practices, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses. In Antiquity, Christianization was effected only partly through laws against sacrifice and sorcery and official conversions of temples to Christian churches. It was effected also by the degradation of pagan gods into daimones and the Christianization of existing rites.

In many cases, re-use of pre-Christian activities and beliefs was officially sanctioned; preserved in the Venerable Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a letter from Pope Gregory I to Mellitus, arguing that it conversions were easier if people were allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditions, while claiming that the traditions were in honour of the Christian God, "to the end that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God". In essence, it was intended that the traditions and practices still existed, but that the reasoning behind them was forgotten. The existence of syncretism in Christian tradition has long been recognised by scholars, and in recent times many of the instances of syncretism have also been acknowledged by the Roman Catholic church.

Contents

1 Overview
2 Christianized populations
3 Christianized sites
4 Christianised Myths and Imagery
5 The Christianized calendar
6 Christianised ritual
7 Symbols and symbolism
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links
11 See also

Overview

This practice of Christianization has at times been relatively peaceful and at times has been a very violent process, ranging from inspired works of charity which convinced populations to adopt Christianity to forced conversions.

When Yale historian Ramsay MacMullen treated the Christianization of the Roman Empire, he divided his book in two sections, before and after the year 312, which marked the momentous conversion of Constantine. Constantine ended the persecution of Christianity (and other religions) with the Edict of Milan, so that paganism was no longer the only acceptable religion. Whether or not Constantine himself was a proponent of what was to follow is contested. After Rome was declared a Christian Empire by Theodosius I in 389, laws were passed against pagan worship over the course of the following years. Those who continued to worship the pagan gods were often imprisoned, tortured, and put to death. Many of the ancient pagan temples were subsequently defiled, sacked, and destroyed, or converted into Christian sites. As such, the Christianization attributed to Constantine eventually became a very violent process under Theodosius.

Humanistic studies of Antiquity and the Reformation combined in the 16th century to produce works of scholarship marked by an agenda that was occupied with identifying Roman Catholic practices with paganism. The sober Lutheran scholar Philip Melanchthon produced his Apologia Confessionis Augustanae (1530) detailing the rites derived from paganism. Heinrich Bullinger, De origine erroris libris duo (1539) detailed the pagan "origins of (Catholic) errors". Isaac Casaubon, De rebus sacris et ecclesiasticus exercitationes (1614) makes a third familiar example, where sound scholarship was somewhat compromised by sectarian pleading. Thus such pagan precedents for Christian practice have tended to be downplayed or even sometimes dismissed by Christian apologists as a form of Protestant apologetics.

The 20th century saw more purely historical inquiries, free of sectarian bias; an early historicist classic in this field of study was Jean Seznec's The Survival of the Pagan Gods: the mythological tradition and its place in Renaissance humanism and the arts. (1972).

Christianized populations

When referring to Northern Europe, the means of this conversion were chiefly Proselytism directed towards monarchs and chieftains whose people then followed their conversion, on the pattern established by the baptism of Clovis, King of the Franks.

Baptism of Poland, by Jan Matejko, 1888–89 (Muzeum Narodow, Warsaw)

The Christianization of Poland provides an example of this process. The "Baptism of Poland" (Polish: Chrzest Polski) in 966 refers to the baptism of Mieszko I, the first ruler of a united Polish state. His baptism was followed by the building of churches and the establishment of an ecclesiastical hierarchy. Mieszko saw baptism as a way of strengthening his hold on power, with the active support he could expect from the bishops, as well as a unifying force for the Polish people. Mieszko's action proved highly successful; by the 13th century, Roman Catholicism had become the dominant religion in Poland.

Crusades against the Wends, the present-day Baltic countries and Finland were also organized, although it is disputed how much these served a religious purpose or the power ambitions of kings, princes and noble bishops.

In long-settled and urban areas of Europe, Christianizing the indigenous populations also involved the conversion of both Muslims and Jews. The Christian sources describe and justify the punishments meted out to the intransigent, but ordinarily omit instances of coercion. In Valencia Spain, for instance, the Catholic sources tell that Saint Vincent Ferrer preached so successfully, converting thousands of Jews, that he was permitted to employ the synagogue for his newly-founded hospital of San Salvador.

Christianized sites

Physical Christianization: he choir of San Salvatore, Spoleto, occupies the cella of a Roman temple.

Few Christian churches built in the first half millennium of the established Christian Church were not built upon sites already consecrated as pagan temples or mithraea, the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva (literally Saint Mary above Minerva) in Rome being simply the most obvious example. Sulpicius Severus, in his Vita of Martin of Tours, a dedicated destroyer of temples and sacred trees, remarks "wherever he destroyed heathen temples, there he used immediately to build either churches or monasteries" ([Vita, ch xiii]), and when Benedict took possession of the site at Monte Cassino, he began by smashing the sculpture of Apollo and the altar that crowned the height.

The British Isles and other areas of northern Europe that were formerly druidic are still densely punctuated by holy wells and holy springs that are now attributed to some saint, often a highly local saint unknown elsewhere; in earlier times many of these were seen as guarded by supernatural forces such as the melusina, and many such pre-Christian holy wells appear to survive as baptistries[paper read in 1999 by Samuel J. Barnish]. Not all pre-Christian holy places were respected enough for them to survive, however, as most ancient European sacred groves, such as the great Irminsul (whose location is now lost, but was possibly located at Externsteine), were destroyed by Christianising forces.

Christianised Myths and Imagery

The historicity of several saints has often been treated sceptically by most academics, either because there is a paucity of historical evidence for them, or due to striking resemblances that they have to pre-Christian deities. In 1969 the Roman Catholic church officially decanonised some Christian Saints, demoted others, and pronounced the historicity of others to be dubious. Though highly popular in the Middle Ages, many of these such saints have since been largely forgotten since, and their names may now seem quite unfamiliar. The most prominent amongst these is Saint Eustace, who was extremely popular in earlier times, but scholars now see as a chimera composed from details of several other Saints. Many of these figures of dubious historicity appear to be based on figures from pre-Christian myth and legend, Saint Sarah, for example, also known as Sarah-la-Kali, is thought by scholars to be a Christianisation of Kali, a hindu deity.

Other more obviously Christian figures, such as certain bishops whose existence are widely attested in historic literature, and central figures such as Mary, the mother of Jesus, Michael, the archangel, and Satan, are not however, without later legendary additions to their more historic narratives. Not only are there apocryphal writings such as the Home-going of the virgin Mary (about her death), but much iconography associated with certain figures, such as with Michael and with Mary, is suspected by several historians to be Christianisation of earlier iconography that originally concerned other, non-Christian, figures. The similarity of Christian depictions of demons to several pre-Christian deities, and deity-related figures such as Satyrs, has lead several scholars to argue that the stereotypical Christian depiction of Satan, and of demons in general, was deliberate demonisation of benign figures from rival religions.

The Christianized calendar

Several Christian feasts occupy moments in the year that were formerly devoted to pagan celebrations. Familiar examples are the Roman Saturnalia, converted to Christmas, the festivities of Yule in northern Europe, the name of Eostre converted to English "Easter" to identify the Paschal festival, the celebration of Midsummer Day as the birthday feast of John the Baptist, and the celebrations of the Feast of the Lemures and of Celtic Samhain combined and transferred to the eve of All Saints' Day a.k.a. Halloween.

Christians in authority frowned upon the riot and disorder of the pre-Christian festivals; in regard to Yule,.the friend and biographer of Saint Eligius recorded that the bishop called the "Apostle to the Frisians" would caution his flock [Do not] make vetulas, (little figures of the Old Woman), little deer or iotticos or set tables at night (for the house-elf, compare Puck) or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks. However, such pre-Christian activities proved hard to supress, and several edicts were given that instruct missionaries to attempt to absorb earlier traditions into Christianity so as to distract people from their pre-Christian gods; All Souls' Day was for example accepted by Odilo (died 1048) in the Cluniac monasteries, and its observance spread through the Celtic north before it was introduced into Italy.

Christianised ritual

The obvious connection to Jewish rituals of Christian practices such as the Eucharist and Baptism, is often argued to be by design. Christian tradition places these Christian use of these activities as having originated in the life of Jesus, as attested by the Biblical narratives (e.g. the Baptism of Jesus for Baptism, and Last Supper for the Eucharist), and the Biblical incidents are said to be examples of Jewish ritual (e.g. Baptism as ritual cleansing, and the Last Supper as a passover seder). However, these practices are also present in several non-Christian, non-Jewish, ancient religions, a fact that made several church fathers uncomfortable. So similar were the practices of major rivals, such as Mithraism, and so obviously did they occur before the existence of Christianity, and unconnected to Judaism, that church fathers such as Tertullian and Justin Martyr argued that Satan himself had given the rituals to the rival religions, as a sort-of prophetic mockery. According to several secular scholars, the fact that even early Christian church fathers admitted that the other religions used these rituals, and that they admitted the other religions used them first, suggests that Christianity adopted them from these sources, and the biblical narrative was invented later to justify Christian usage.

Symbols and symbolism

Although the cross is currently the most common symbol of Christianity, and has been for many centuries, it only came to prominence during the fourth century, and was not particularly associated with christianity before that time. According to Christian tradition, the cross is a reference to the crucifixion of Jesus, and the crucifix is a more obvious, and some would say gruesome, version of such a reference. However, due to the highly ambiguous nature of the Greek terms used in the bible for his crucifixion, it may be the case that the correct translation actually points to Jesus having just been tied to a single stake of wood, rather than the cross shaped device in traditional depictions; though Christian translations into English often render these terms as nailed to a cross, they could equally mean nailed to a tree and nailed to a wooden pole, which was another common method of crucifixion in the Roman empire - the hands being tied above the head.

Crosses, however, were important symbols of several pre-Christian religions, including hinduism where the Swastika, now somewhat tainted due to its 20th century use by Nazis, was originally a prominent holy symbol, and the religion of Ancient Egypt where the increasingly cross-shaped Ankh was regarded as a symbol of life itself. The main early christianity communities centred on Alexandria and Rome, and it is thought likely that the Alexandrian Christians adopted the Ankh, while the Rome-based Christians adopted the cross from influences such as depictions of Bacchus with his head covered by cross symbols. Those who see Jesus as simply a Jewish form of the Osiris-Dionysus mythology consider the use of the Ankh symbol as an obvious continuation, while other scholars consider that it was adopted due to Christianity valuing its metaphysical connotations.

The predecessor of the cross as the main Christian symbol was the labarum, a symbol formed by overlaying the first two letters of the Greek word for christ in the Greek alphabet. Constantine I is widely considered to have introduced the symbol into Christianity, but the symbol itself predates this, and was also used by the major religion of Sol Invictus, due to its prior use as a major symbol representing good fortune. Prior to Christianity, the symbol had become considered to represent auspiciousness since it was earlier the symbol of Chronos, the Greek deity of time itself, whose name it forms the monogram of, in much the same way as it monograms an epithet given by Christians to Jesus.

Although Christian tradition argues that Constantine chose the labarum because he had a vision that lead him to convert to Christianity, Constantine's supposed conversion is disputed by many historians since he continued using clearly Sol Invictus related symbolism and wording on his currency for his entire life, remained the Pontifex Maximus of Mithraism/Ancient Roman religion for his entire life, and was only baptised on his deathbed, and even that is disputed since the only witnesses were the same people that claimed that Constantine had been Christian for much longer. Most secular historians see Constantine's motive for choosing the labarum as political rather than supernatural or religious, with him deliberately making his banner one which could be interpreted as supporting either of the two major religions of the Roman Empire at the time; Constantine saw unity and conformity as the way to achieve political stability, and spent a great deal of time attempting to reduce division (for example by holding the Council of Nicea to settle the question of Arianism). Although many Christian groups treat the symbol as having always been exclusively Christian, certain Protestant groups, particularly Restorationists support the conclusions of secular scholars, and consequently regard the symbol as non-Christian, disowning it.

Construction diagram of the Vesica Piscis, showing the Ichthys symbol within it

Prior to the labarum, the main Christian symbol, and the earliest, was a fish-like symbol now known as Ichthys (which is just the Greek word for fish). There are several explanations given by Christian tradition for the choice of the symbol: that it was a reference to the feeding of the multitude; that it referred to some of the apostles having previously been fishermen; or that the word Christ was pronounced by Jews in a similar way to the Hebrew word for fish (though Nunah is the normal Hebrew word for fish, making this seem unlikely). The Icthys symbol is near-identical to the tailed form of the vesica piscis, an earlier symbol with a strong mystical significance to the ancient Pythagoreans, whose influence imbued the mediterranian mystery religions which surrounded nascent Christianity, and therefore scholars have become split on the probability that Christianity adopted the symbol as a result of influence from pythagorean use of it. Those who think that Christianity was originally a mystery religion have argued that Christian adoption of the symbol is a logical result of Christianity deriving from such religions.

Notes

References

Kaplan, Steven 1984 Monastic Holy Man and the Christianization of Early Solomonic Ethiopia (in series Studien zur Kulturkunde) ISBN 3515039341
Kerenyi, Karl, Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life 1976.
MacMullen, Ramsay, Christianizing the Roman Empire, AD 100 – 400 Yale University Press (paperback, 1986 ISBN 0300036426 )
Trombley, Frank R., 1995. Hellenic Religion and Christianization c. 370-529 (in series Religions in the Graeco-Roman World) (Brill) ISBN 9004096914
Vesteinsson, Orri, 2000. The Christianization of Iceland: Priests, Power, and Social Change 1000-1300 (Oxford:Oxford University Press) ISBN 0198207999

External links

[Jorge Quiroga and Monica R. Lovelle, "Ciudades atlánticas en transición: La “ciudad” tardo-antigua y alto-medieval en el noroeste de la Península Ibérica (s.V-XI)"] from Archeologia Medievale vol xxvii (1999), pp 257–268 Christianizing Late Antique Roman sites from the 6th century onwards.
[Sceptical account of the remains under St Peter's Basilica]
[Catholic apologist account of the remains under St Peter's Basilica]