Is Catholicism influenced by Paganism?

Question

I have heard this before. If you do agree with this, can you explain why so?

Answer 1

To answer this you need to ask if the root of Catholicism, Judaism was influenced by paganism. Well if you consider the fact the Old Testament contains stories which were prevalent throughout the Near East regardless of the religion, then yes there is proof that some aspects of paganism were used in founding the religion.
The problem with the pagan argument is that the amount of paganism influencing the creation of the early church rather minimal in comparison to lets say Judaism.
For example, eliminating circumcision is a result of pressure from pagan converts, as it was seen as barbaric (in fact outside the US not many are circumcised.) The same can be said about kosher laws.
I suppose to some extent you can say the architecture of pagan temples resulted in the design of Christian churches, although that's probably pushing it.

Holidays such as Christmas are believed to be placed during the time of winter festivals. Since the pagan celebrations were so popular it would be almost impossible to prevent people from celebrating. So adding a Christian holiday in place of the former would solve this problem. However any left over customes incorporated into the christian holiday would be dependent on local customes. Not everyone had the equivalent of a Christmas tree, infact most our holiday traditions originated in England and Germany and might be rather odd to those outside the cultural influence.
Also there is to some extent the coincidence of christian/pagan traditions. Eating eggs on easter would come to no surprise since for thousands of years our food was dependent of the season and hens would have just begun to lay during this time. The concept of only one God is not unheard of outside Judaic religions.

And if the lure of pagan holidays seems odd, then consider how many people; atheists and non-christians celebrate Christmas and Valentines day.

If you want to know more about what the early church thought of paganism pick up the book City of God by Saint Augustine.

Answer 2

Catholicism is influenced by Christ....hmmm...everything has some influence on all others, significant or insignificant. I think the pagan influence on Catholicism is insignificant and has NO impact on the teachings of the church. Some feast days (the days on which they fall) may be borrowed from earlier pagan festivals but thats where the influence ends.

Be careful of what you hear and believe. Stupid and ignorant people are the ones who usually love to run their mouths the most. Case in point, the guy above me. If he read the Bible he would know the breaking of bread and drinking of wine is from the last supper where Jesus drew the analogy of giving his body and blood as a sacrifice to save us. The other points, as some else pointed out were to counteract the pagan influence on those days.

P.S. If your display pic is a picture of you, you real best girl!!

Answer 3

A lot of people who don't understand the Catholic faith think Catholics worship idols so they would say yes. But Catholics do not worship idols and they were the first Church, founded by Paul and the other disciples. The Catholic faith is influenced by the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. If you'd like more information I recommend this site: http://www.catholic.org/prayers/beliefs.php.

jtuckerndfw: Catholics do not worship three God's. They believe in one God in 3 forms. "By the Blessed Trinity we mean one and the same God in three divine persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Note how it says One and the Same. Catholics did not adopt the pagan calendar, they established holidays on the same day as a way to "counteract" the pagan holidays.

john_s: Where exactly have you heard of current Churchs allowing the worshiping of female deities and animal sacrifices? I've been to several Churchs all over recently and didn't witness any of this and I've never heard of it.

Answer 4

All religions are influenced by other religions.
As the Christians branched out into other areas of the world and converted people, many of the "old gods" became saints and their feast days saints' days. Jesus' supposed birthday of 12/25 was very close to Mithra's birthday. The converting Christians built their churches on ancient holy sites and on top of old shrines to pagan deities. The priests knew that the first few generations of church-goers might still be worshiping their old gods in their hearts but eventually that knowledge would be lost.

Answer 5

Look at it. Catholicism is different in every part of the world. In many places they worship female deities and still perform animal sacrifices (I just got pix from a missionary). The RC allows this to keep the people in church. Yes, paganism has been a big part of Catholicism since the 4th or 5th century.

Answer 6

Catholicism is paganism. Catholics invented the idea of three Gods and they adopted pagan holidays. All Trinitarian Christians are pagans.

Answer 7

The concept that Christianity and Judaism are similar is a myth. Christianity is far more similar to many pagan faiths. From the holidays to a good chunk of theology.

When the Church was expanding they adapted pagan rites and customs to make it more appealing for converts.

Answer 8

During the beginnings of Christianity, Constantine wanted to lure the pagan tribes aound him into the world of Christianity. He incorporated some of their beliefs into the Christian realm to lure them in. For example ,The halos you see on Saints are actually the representation of the sun to incorporate the sun god Ra of Egypt. It wasn't until Martin Luther said enough was enough that the separation of Christian Religions began i.e. Protestantism and Catholicism.

Answer 9

the nicean council created the first catholic church. every aspect of catholic church is overlayed on top of a similar pagan activity or belief. december 25 is actually dec 21st in julian calander which is the day of winter solstice (longest night of the year) and pagans celebrated yule that day. easter in spring (jesus renewal) is taken from spring renewal celebrations called eoster or ostara. in these celebrations many spells involving Rabbits and Eggs were used because they best symbolized fertility. (ever hear the cliche' she killed the rabbit? = she got pregnant?)
the mass where you share a loaf of bread and wine is directly from a witches ceremony of cakes and ale to ground excess spiritual energy not used in spell work. every aspect you regard as christian or catholic is stolen from a prior belief system.

Answer 10

Yes...probably not as much these days.

For instance St. Brigid the patron of Ireland was the name of the Goddess there. The catholic church canonized her to bring the pagans who worshiped her under their "flag."