Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning | Page 3

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PAGAN & CHRISTIAN CREEDS: THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING
By EDWARD CARPENTER

"The different religions being lame attempts to represent under various
guises this one root-fact of the central universal life, men have at all
times clung to the religious creeds and rituals and ceremonials as
symbolising in some rude way the redemption and fulfilment of their
own most intimate natures--and this whether consciously understanding
the interpretations, or whether (as most often) only doing so in an
unconscious or quite subconscious way." The Drama of Love and
Death, p. 96.

CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTORY II. SOLAR MYTHS AND CHRISTIAN
FESTIVALS III. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ZODIAC IV.
TOTEM-SACRAMENTS AND EUCHARISTS V. FOOD AND
VEGETATION MAGIC VI. MAGICIANS, KINGS AND GODS VII.
RITES OF EXPIATION AND REDEMPTION VIII. PAGAN
INITIATIONS AND THE SECOND BIRTH IX. MYTH OF THE
GOLDEN AGE X. THE SAVIOUR-GOD AND THE
VIRGIN-MOTHER XI. RITUAL DANCING XII. THE SEX-TABOO
XIII. THE GENESIS OF CHRISTIANITY XV. THE MEANING OF
IT ALL XV. THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES XVI. THE EXODUS OF
CHRISTIANITY XVII. CONCLUSION
APPENDIX ON THE TEACHINGS OF THE UPANISHADS: I.
REST II. THE NATURE OF THE SELF

PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN CREEDS: THEIR ORIGIN AND
MEANING
I. INTRODUCTORY
The subject of Religious Origins is a fascinating one, as the great
multitude of books upon it, published in late years, tends to show.
Indeed the great difficulty to-day in dealing with the subject, lies in the
very mass of the material to hand--and that not only on account of the
labor involved in sorting the material, but because the abundance itself
of facts opens up temptation to a student in this department of
Anthropology (as happens also in other branches of general Science) to
rush in too hastily with what seems a plausible theory. The more facts,
statistics, and so forth, there are available in any investigation, the
easier it is to pick out a considerable number which will fit a given
theory. The other facts being neglected or ignored, the views put
forward enjoy for a time a great vogue. Then inevitably, and at a later
time, new or neglected facts alter the outlook, and a new perspective is
established.
There is also in these matters of Science (though many scientific men
would doubtless deny this) a great deal of "Fashion". Such has been
notoriously the case in Political Economy, Medicine, Geology, and
even in such definite studies as Physics and Chemistry. In a

comparatively recent science, like that with which we are now
concerned, one would naturally expect variations. A hundred and fifty
years ago, and since the time of Rousseau, the "Noble Savage" was
extremely popular; and he lingers still in the story books of our children.
Then the reaction from this extreme view set in, and of late years it has
been the popular cue (largely, it must be said, among "armchair"
travelers and explorers) to represent the religious rites and customs of
primitive folk as a senseless mass of superstitions, and the early man as
quite devoid of decent feeling and intelligence. Again, when the study
of religious origins first began in modern times to be seriously taken
up--say in the earlier part of last century-- there was a great boom in
Sungods. Every divinity in the Pantheon was an impersonation of the
Sun--unless indeed (if feminine) of the Moon. Apollo was a sungod, of
course; Hercules was a sungod; Samson was a sungod; Indra and
Krishna, and even Christ, the same. C. F. Dupuis in France (Origine de
tous les Cultes, 1795), F. Nork in Germany (Biblische Mythologie,
1842), Richard Taylor in England (The Devil's Pulpit,[1] 1830), were
among the first