The Roots of Christianity

One of the recent topics of discussion lately, and I must say a perennially popular one, on the forums at my favorite atheist website has been the "pagan" origins of Christianity. I thought it highly appropriate that this subject should emerge once more at this particular season of the year since Advent is our waiting for the arrival of the Messiah, the arrival which is, or course, one of the foundational events of our faith.

The poster at the website to which I refer wrote a long list of concepts which Christianity supposedly stole from paganism, many are repetitive, so I have taken liberties by condensing this list somewhat. Among the noticed similarities are these, the "god" concept itself; Satan; souls; heaven and hell; sin; redemption; an incarnated Divine Savior; miracles; Resurrection; ascension; baptism; Eucharist; the fulfillment of prophecy. I do not intend to address these issues case by case, but rather, in Chestertonian fashion, to address the idea of similarities springing from a common source.

I would, like my hero Chesterton, note that perhaps these similarities spring from the dim recesses of a collective human memory. I contend that monotheism is the original theological condition of man, that as societies coalesced to form larger groups, as families became clans, as clans became tribes, as tribes became nations pantheons were formed as the single gods of merging groups of people were adopted by the larger groups as a form of compromise.

But always, some element of a dimly recalled cataclysm remained, that which we know as the Fall of Man. Man has always realized that there is something inherently wrong with himself. That something about his nature is not as it should be. As Chesterton says, "...there is something in the whole tone of the time suggesting that men had accepted a lower level, and still were half conscious that it was a lower level...These men were conscious of the Fall if they were conscious of nothing else...Those who have fallen may remember the fall, even when they have forgotten the height."

Certainly, I have not proven my contention that monotheism was the original condition of man. But I submit that it is indeed a far simpler explanation than the spontaneous generation of numerous pantheons coming into existence. One is much simpler than many. A common, and dimly recalled experience would also explain the commonalities found among the religions of the world's far-flung cultures. The knowledge that man had once offended a deity led to the codification of laws. The knowledge that man was meant for immortality led to the burial traditions whereby a man's belonging were interred with him in the grave. The knowledge that man had initiated the rift between himself and his deity led to the tradition of a sacrificing priesthood. The knowledge that this rift existed cried out for the deliverance of man by a Redeemer. Upon such dim knowledge, upon these dim recollections of a promise did Man begin the construction of the great pantheons of old.

But on the fringe of the world, in the murky backwater of the flourishing civilizations hugging the rim of the Mediterranean Sea, one culture, one nation, one civilization clung tenaciously to the belief in one God. In my next post, we'll look at this odd monotheistic culture and the beliefs to which it held so fiercely.

Until then, all the best. Joe