Couldn't the early Church fathers have converted pagans only by appealing to their reason and/or faith if Christianity is the true religion?
2006-09-28 22:27:26 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Nah... christanity assimilating holiday traditions was a VERY magior part of them converting others..... espeshaly with the celtics.
It was the only way they could get any celtics to even listen to them was to go hey... look... we (now) have the same traditions as you do.
Edit - *ROFLAO at RoseOfSharon's answer* ......
2006-09-28 22:36:57 · answer #1 · answered by CrazyCat 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I suggest reading some of the Church Fathers writings concerning the Pagans of that day. They couldn't appeal to their reasoning, simply because the story that is upheld in Christianity is absolutely no different than anything the Pagans of that time had. Even the Church Fathers couldn't reason it away, instead they just said "oh, well, our's is more right than yours... cause God made ours... Satan is just messing with you". THAT is their reasoning... and it didn't work with the Pagans. So, I guess, the Church finally said if you can't beat em, join em and started worshipping right next to the Pagans, in hopes of getting converts.
What I find interesting about all of that is, when Pagan Rome fell and the "Church" took over... we went straight into the Dark Ages. An odd name for an era that was supposed to bring Peace and Enlightenment, don't you think?
2006-09-29 01:42:17 · answer #2 · answered by Kithy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They didn't call it marketing then, but in essence that is what was happening. The Roman Catholic Church, in a move to obtain more conversions and to counter act Pagan holidays, reinvented the holidays and renamed them, particularly the two major celebrations of the winter solstice and spring equinox. This of course is what makes it so absurd when Christians talk about getting back to the true meaning of Christmas, for if we did, Jesus wouldn't even get a mention. By the by, the best scholars put Jesus actual birthday sometime in August.
2006-09-28 23:13:21 · answer #3 · answered by Magic One 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing sinister about it. As people converted from paganism to christianity it was just easier to use the same day for celebrations that was previously used. Let's look at Easter. If someone were to introduce a new religion and convert more than 3/4 of Christians to this new religions, wouldn't it be easier to just use the Easter date to do new religion celebrations on? - It's already a public holiday and most people would find the transition easier than if they had to re-schedule their whole calender - people are creatures of habit.
2006-09-28 22:36:53 · answer #4 · answered by SweetyPie 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the beginning of Christianity the people did not believe. They were all pagan. However, rulers were converting and so forced the people to as well. So the people did everything they could to keep their religion. There are many pagan symbols and beliefs in Christianity. Pagan people were unwilling to give up their holidays so they just gave them new names so as not to anger their rulers.
I think this is what makes me most angry with Christians. They have been forcing their beliefs on others from the beginning of their religion. Its immoral.
2006-09-28 22:33:27 · answer #5 · answered by AstralFairy 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
B/c when ppl wanted to convert pagans to christianity they had to make some concessions in order to make it appealing to the pagans so the religion got polluted
2006-09-28 22:41:55 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
During the council of Nicea the catholic religious leaders of the time decided to do this on purpose in order to A) attract more people to convert to Christianity, and B) to make the conversion from paganism to Catholicism easier.
2006-09-28 22:37:36 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Christians Incorporated many pagan holidays into theirs to convert and appease the pagans.Christmas and Easter are two of the biggest ones.
2006-09-28 22:32:43 · answer #8 · answered by eva b 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Actually, the pagans converted the newbies, and just let them change the name.
If you took a KIA automobile, and put a Rolls Royce hood ornament on it, would it be a Rolls, or would it still be a KIA?
It's just the same old superstititions, with a different name.
To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a superstition is a superstition is a superstition.
2006-09-28 22:30:01 · answer #9 · answered by Jim 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I dont know 100 per cent if this is true but an university professeur taught us this. Early Christians were terribly persucuted by Romans and for instance the early Christians elected to celebrate Christmas on the Roman holiday called the Saturnalya as the Romans would have been doing some heavy drinking then, therefore, they reconed they would not have been persucuted while trhey celebrated Jesus birthday etc.
2006-09-28 22:36:28 · answer #10 · answered by devora k 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋