> In brief, the "christianizing" of Europe was a long and difficult job. In
> the 17th and 18th centuries, activists still complained that it had not been
> done and in the 19th century the location of "paganism" shifted from rural
> to urban lower classes. But we should not take these complaints too
> literally.
> Jo Ann
Indeed, by the 17th and 18th century one suspects that accusations
of "paganism" are in fact a rhetoric used by different branches of
christianity of each other - Protestants equate Catholicism with
"paganism", and intellectual Catholics refer to "supersitious
peasants" as pagans.
In a study of calendar customs, STATIONS OF THE SUN, Ronald
Hutton points out (in the concluding chapter of a very dense and
detailed work) that many of the "pagan residues" discovererd by
folklorists could more accurately be called "catholic residues"
(or, if you prefer, "residues of pre-protestant Christianity.")
For example, when farmers cicumambulate a field with a statue
of St. John to ensure fertility, is this a pagan practice or a
Christian one? Possibly they originally used an image of Freyr, but
the replacement of Freyr by St. John would have taken place some time
in the 9th - 12th centuries (my example is Scandinavian), and for
the following 500 years or so the farmers would have been very
insulted by claims that they were performing pagan rituals.
On another topic mentioned recently on this list, if anyone knows
of work being done on marriage as a means of conversion, with reference
to issues such as those described for the native american situation,
i would be very grateful for references. For that matter, Christian:pagan
marriages which did NOT lead to conversion would be of equal interest.
Margaret Cormack [log in to unmask]
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion fax: 843-953-6388
College of Charleston tel: 843-953-8033
Charleston, SC 29424-0001
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