>>And many of them (like Oedipus, Theseus, Hercules, Perseus,
Jason, Dionysus, Apollo, Mithra,
Horus and even Arthur) possessed a narrative of birth, death, and resurrection that
was uncomfortably close to that of Jesus.
And to make matters worse, many of them pre-dated the Christian Savior.
These older "birth/death/resurrection" tales are in fact allusions to the agricultural cycle, and have nothing to do with the sort of resurrection spoken of in the Gospels. To argue that the Christian story of resurrection is dependent upon the other tales simply because they are older is to indulge in "post hoc, propter hoc" reasoning. You have to make a logical connection, not just show that one item is older than the other.
>> Later, the Yule log was replaced by
the Yule tree but, instead of burning it,
burning candles were placed on it. In Christianity, Protestants might claim that
Martin Luther invented the custom,
>>, the holiday of Christmas has always been more Pagan
than Christian... That is why both
Martin Luther and John Calvin abhorred it
Sounds to me like your author can't figure out whether Martin Luther hated Christmas or invented the Christmas Tree, so she has him doing both. I'm inclined to think Luther celebrated Christmas enthusiastically, since he didn't place much significance on superficial pietism or works once he broke with Catholicism. I'll look into this one.
I'm always fascinated at how modern "witches" seem to know so much about a religion and culture that left no written record; the Druids in particular would not put any of their ceremonies in writing even when they had the ability, everything was passed on orally. The bulk of what we know of the old European religions was recorded by the one group that wrote things down, the church. Of course, being witches, maybe our modern pagans can tap directly into the Astral Plane and commune directly with their long vanished progenitors. Just draw a pentagram, light some candles, invoke the Sacred Names....and maybe do a sacrifice to Sol Invictus, the unconquerable sun. Where did I leave my goat? I've got the knife good and sharp now...here Billy, Billy, Billy... |
