[Peace-discuss] The Christmas He Dreamed for All of Us

[C. G. Estabrook]

I think it is, in regard to Xmas, at least in the sense that
the early Xn movement purposely scheduled the celebration of
Christ's birth at the time of the solstice festivals popular
in the rather sophisticated urban culture of the first
century. (E.g., Mithraism, popular in the Roman military, used
sun symbols.) 

In the larger sense, the relation of Xy to the surrounding
religious culture, which eventually came to be called pagan
(lit., the religion of country-people), was much debated in 
the Xn writings of the first several centuries ('patristics'),
In the period ca. 100-500 CE, Christianity worked its way up
the social scale of Roman imperial civilization, which was a
league of city-states of varying cultures. (The imperial court
became Xn only in the course of the fourth century.)

The culmination (and in some sense the conclusion, as the
empire in the West gave way to 'barbarian' kingdoms) of this
process came in the work of Augustine of Hippo (d. 430 CE),
who thought that Xy should properly 'despoil the Egyptians':
just as the Israelites had taken things of value as they
escaped from Egypt, according to the book of Exodus, so Xy
should take what was of value in classical culture. 

Xy has generally been syncretistic in that sense.  As one of
the patristic writers put it, 'anima naturaliter christiana'
-- human nature is naturally Christian -- and so should
include what is best in human achievement.  It's been a
popular sentiment: Karl Marx took as his motto a line from the
Roman poet Terence, 'homo sum; nihil humanum alienum a me
puto' -- 'Being human, I don't consider anything human foreign
to me.'

And Chesterton's ballad is a strange but interesting read. 

Merry Xmas, CGE 

 

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 09:05:41 -0600
>From: Tracy Nectoux <tnectoux at uiuc.edu>  
>Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] The Christmas He Dreamed for All
of Us  
>To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 08:34:52 -0600
>>From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>  
>
>>
>>   "...because it is only Christian men
>>   Guard even heathen things."
>>
>>   --Chesterton, Ballad of the White Horse
>
>A beautiful quote.  But is it true?
>
>Peace,
>Tracy
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