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Pagan origins of Christianity?
Pagan Origins of Christianity?
There are many Muslims who claim that there are many pagan influences
which shaped the Christian faith and corrupted it. Here some answers
how serious these speculations should be taken.
Did the church father Justin Martyr confirm
the pagan roots of Christianity?
Mithraism and general assessment by
Abdul Saleeb
Origins
and developments of Mithraism
Mithras (soc.religion.christian FAQ)
Muslim/Christian Mithras and Osiris discussion
Is the Trinity pagan?
Savior Myths
Who is El?
Shattering the Christ-Myth
Easter:
Myth, Hallucination or History?
Was Easter Borrowed from a Pagan Holiday?
Christmas: Pagan Festival or Christian Celebration?
How December 25 Became Christmas
Krishna and the claims in Doane's book.
Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Philosophy?
Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Religions?
Pagan Mythology and the Bible
Most of these pagan origin theories were very popular around 1900 but
have been discarded by NT scholarship long ago. Only some atheist groups
and Muslims seem to be stuck on it but none of the experts of early
Christianity find this acceptable anymore (including those who are not
Christians themselves).
"Christmas trees are pagan idolatery" and answers to that rather regular charge:
[*,
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What about
Pagan Origins of Islam?
There exist quite a number of works on the pagan origins of Islam.
Some of them can be found on the web. We are no experts on this
issue, and cannot judge the scholarly merit of the following material,
but it might at least help to see the issue in a new perspective
given that similar arguments are made for Islam. Therefore Muslims
need to be more careful when they want to use these ideas as it
can easily be turned on Islam in the same way.
The Influence of Animism on Islam
The Lunar Passion and the Daughters of Allah
Islam and Goddess Worship
Allah's Existence in Pre-Islamic Arabia
Hindu Customs in Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism
Book recommendations:
Ronald Nash, The Gospel and the Greeks (Dallas: Word Publishing 1992)
Arland Hultgren, The Rise of Normative Christianity (Fortress Press 1994)
Leon McKenzie, Pagan Resurrection Myths and the Resurrection of Jesus
Ancient paganism
and The Paganism that
is Modern Day Christianity are two representatives of the Muslim sites
claiming that some superficial similarities are the same as "origins" even
when the Christian doctrine is older than these pagen beliefs. But in
general, the Muslims might think a bit harder on the question whether
similar beliefs before Christianity or Islam respectively mean
that it is borrowed and therefore false.
Even Muslims found themselves the necessity to write on
Religious Borrowing since a large part of the Qur'an is very
closely or nearly verbatim taken from various non-Islamic sources.
You may consult in particular Tisdall's book "The original Sources of
the Qur'an" on this topic. More about this topic in the section on the
Sources of the Qur'an.
Do we have again two standards of measuring? One for Christianity and
one for Islam?
Most material on the following pages is pretty laughable,
but in order to raise awareness of some who actually believe this:
Zoroastrian Influences on Judaism and Christianity and Monotheism
The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus
Muslims, don't rejoice to much in this: If Jesus never existed as claimed
for example in the second of the above articles, then the Qur'an is as wrong
as the Bible. The same holds for the following which some Muslims have
jumped to a bit prematurely:
Allegedly, the Roman Piso Family invented Jesus and all of Christianity
(1,
2).
Responses from a Christian newsgroup.
Here is a much more detailed response to the Pisomania by
J.P. Holding.
Interestingly, the same group also included the Qur'an into their theories
(here).
Answering Islam Home Page