What do you believe were the motives why the Roman Catholic Church incorporated Pagan rituals?

Answer 1

To make the Pagans convert and abandon their own beliefs. If they had chosen different times for things like Easter and Christmas, the Pagans would have maybe observed those, and kept their own. The church wanted to eliminate Paganism, not exist alongside it.


VLR

Answer 2

This was a common practice dating back before Christianity. The Romans were polytheists and generally quite happy to incorporate the 'new' religions of conquered people into their 'pantheon'. And where they were sure of which the corresponding deity might be, they would erect a monument to 'the unknown god' or 'gods of this place'.

The symbols of the god(s) would be taken to Rome, where they would be installed in the temple with appropriate ceremony.

Consequently when the Empire became 'Christianised' this mixing (syncretism) continued as it had before. The incorporation of 'pagan' rituals may also have been due in part to the Roman tendency to value orthopraxy (doing the right things) more than orthodoxy (believing the right things).
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Answer 3

Christianity is simply the latest in a long chain of manufactured belief systems, supplying the endless demand for superstition within the human condition. The objective of all belief systems is to divide, absorb, and rule, and to this end Christianity has been very efficient,(and lucky) in promoting its version of the latest truth. Traces remain of the old religions, Easter,and Christmas have noticeable Pagan roots. Perhaps the most telling is the` Sabbath`, Saturday for Jesus the Jew, but changed to the Day of the Sun, to clash with various Sun worship cults, notably the cult of Sol Invictus. Christians today "walk in the light", and avoid the "darkness". "I am the Light and the way". The `Son from heaven`. ...... The words `sun/ light/ darkness,occur OVER 500 TIMES in the Bible. Amen!

Answer 4

Really it's all Christianity (and to an extent most modern religion), not simply the Roman Catholic Church. They wanted to be more accessable more or less. I mean let's look back to stoping keeping kosher laws, and not celebrating Passover... Guess what? Jesus celebrated passover.... They didn't want Christianity only accessable to a certain demographic group, so they adapted it to something more familiar while attempting to still provide the same content. Likewise, 300 years ago Jews maintained a completely separate cultural identity, wore different clothes, and had completely different customs, they've more recently adapted those habits of those around them to avoid persecution... Buddhism has gone through similar localization changes, Tibettan Buddhism and Zen Buddhism having significant changes from its origins).

EDIT: Guernica's answer was better though...

Answer 5

to be more appealing to those pagans that they wanted to convert

they were having no luck with the Jews so they had to move on to others and the only ones left were the pagans who already had their own beliefs and practices

the Church took Paul's example and they went and pretended to be things they weren't in order to win people over

they used the pagan rituals as a type of deceit and then they were stuck with them once they had won them over

Answer 6

Which "Pagan" rituals do you mean?

There are a lot of symbols that are used by both Christians and non-Christians including the cross.

Just because another religion uses a cross for some reason does not make the symbol any less meaningful for Christians (including Catholics).

With love in Christ.

Answer 7

The same reason both Protestants and Muslims incorporated Pagan rituals. The people were used to them and they made sense when trying to communicate with a God.......any God.

Answer 8

They wanted the pagans to convert so they incorporated the pagan rituals that they might not feel different from what they used to...the problem was paganism overcome catholicism that it has become unpure....

Most of it were giving the rituals a new name.

Info for above answerer:

Christmas=Winter Solstice/Saturnalia
Easter=Spring equinox
New Years celeb= Feast of the Two-faced Roman God Janus

so on...

Answer 9

I don't know about any rituals,but plenty of trappings. Constantine was a Mithraic and he is really the big boy who organized the original church in it's historical form. Constantine called the shots. Hence,the need to destroy all Mithraic artifacts,since their odd similarity to the Church's teachings (as of Constantine) were an embarrassment. But rituals? None that I know if.

Answer 10

Often times to convert people you take their culture and find way of incorporating it in order to teach people truths about Christianity. . For instance December 25 was chosen as the day to celebrate Christ's birth. There was a a very licentious pagan fesitval at that time of year. It would have been easy for some newly converted Christians to be tempted by their neighbors in participating. Being converted does not destroy temptation. It was a way of making that time of the year holy and a chance to focus on Jesus Christ rather than be distracted by unchristian things around them.