I didn't say the early church; I said the medieval church. Certainly there was a time (up through the 6th c. A.D., roughly) of transition when paganism was still a serious rival to Christianity. My mention of Chaucer should indicate that I was talking about a later period. But, even focusing on the earliest centuries A.D., I still can't think of many instances of Christians physically destroying texts on the grounds of objectionable pagan content. Randi Eldevik
On Sat, 17 Oct 1998, The Oracle wrote: > >For the benefit of novices in ancient & medieval studies, I would add > only > >that the medieval Christian church had no need to feel threatened by > >Greco-Roman paganism, which was no longer a serious rival to Christian > >belief; > > Hmmm...thats not how I understood it. So if the early Church did not > feel threatened by paganism, why did it feel the need to compromise and > give concessions to paganism such as altering the dates of Christian > events to fit in with Pagan festivals, boosting the status of the virgin > Mary to fit in with the Pagan idea of a 'mother-goddess', merging the > traditions etc??? I also understood that the Christian Church leaders > developed the idea of the devil as being similar in appearance to the > Pagan god (not of Greek/Roman tradition obviously) in an attempt to > instil fear in Pagans and encourage them to convert - surely a symptom > of feeling threatened and rivalled??? > Apologies for drifting so far off the topic of Virgil ... although in a > way I think its related... > Caro > > ______________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. > Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message > "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You > can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
