{"product_id":"2940015835182","title":"PAGAN \u0026 CHRISTIAN CREEDS: THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     I.    INTRODUCTORY\u003cbr\u003e     II.   SOLAR MYTHS AND CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS\u003cbr\u003e     III.  THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ZODIAC\u003cbr\u003e     IV.   TOTEM-SACRAMENTS AND EUCHARISTS\u003cbr\u003e     V.    FOOD AND VEGETATION MAGIC\u003cbr\u003e     VI.   MAGICIANS, KINGS AND GODS\u003cbr\u003e     VII.  RITES OF EXPIATION AND REDEMPTION\u003cbr\u003e     VIII. PAGAN INITIATIONS AND THE SECOND BIRTH\u003cbr\u003e     IX.   MYTH OF THE GOLDEN AGE\u003cbr\u003e     X.    THE SAVIOUR-GOD AND THE VIRGIN-MOTHER\u003cbr\u003e     XI.   RITUAL DANCING\u003cbr\u003e     XII.  THE SEX-TABOO\u003cbr\u003e     XIII. THE GENESIS OF CHRISTIANITY\u003cbr\u003e     XV.   THE MEANING OF IT ALL\u003cbr\u003e     XV.   THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES\u003cbr\u003e     XVI.  THE EXODUS OF CHRISTIANITY\u003cbr\u003e     XVII. CONCLUSION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     APPENDIX ON THE TEACHINGS OF THE UPANISHADS:\u003cbr\u003e     I.    REST\u003cbr\u003e     II.   THE NATURE OF THE SELF\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePAGAN AND CHRISTIAN CREEDS: THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI. INTRODUCTORY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe subject of Religious Origins is a fascinating one, as the great\u003cbr\u003emultitude of books upon it, published in late years, tends to show.\u003cbr\u003eIndeed the great difficulty to-day in dealing with the subject, lies in\u003cbr\u003ethe very mass of the material to hand--and that not only on account of\u003cbr\u003ethe labor involved in sorting the material, but because the abundance\u003cbr\u003eitself of facts opens up temptation to a student in this department of\u003cbr\u003eAnthropology (as happens also in other branches of general Science) to\u003cbr\u003erush in too hastily with what seems a plausible theory. The more facts,\u003cbr\u003estatistics, and so forth, there are available in any investigation, the\u003cbr\u003eeasier it is to pick out a considerable number which will fit a given\u003cbr\u003etheory. The other facts being neglected or ignored, the views put\u003cbr\u003eforward enjoy for a time a great vogue. Then inevitably, and at a later\u003cbr\u003etime, new or neglected facts alter the outlook, and a new perspective is\u003cbr\u003eestablished.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is also in these matters of Science (though many scientific men\u003cbr\u003ewould doubtless deny this) a great deal of \"Fashion\". Such has been\u003cbr\u003enotoriously the case in Political Economy, Medicine, Geology, and even\u003cbr\u003ein such definite studies as Physics and Chemistry. In a comparatively\u003cbr\u003erecent science, like that with which we are now concerned, one would\u003cbr\u003enaturally expect variations. A hundred and fifty years ago, and since\u003cbr\u003ethe time of Rousseau, the \"Noble Savage\" was extremely popular; and he\u003cbr\u003elingers still in the story books of our children. Then the reaction from\u003cbr\u003ethis extreme view set in, and of late years it has been the popular cue\u003cbr\u003e(largely, it must be said, among \"armchair\" travelers and explorers)\u003cbr\u003eto represent the religious rites and customs of primitive folk as a\u003cbr\u003esenseless mass of superstitions, and the early man as quite devoid of\u003cbr\u003edecent feeling and intelligence. Again, when the study of religious\u003cbr\u003eorigins first began in modern times to be seriously taken up--say in the\u003cbr\u003eearlier part of last century--there was a great boom in Sungods. Every\u003cbr\u003edivinity in the Pantheon was an impersonation of the Sun--unless indeed\u003cbr\u003e(if feminine) of the Moon. Apollo was a sungod, of course; Hercules was\u003cbr\u003ea sungod; Samson was a sungod; Indra and Krishna, and even Christ, the\u003cbr\u003esame. C. F. Dupuis in France (Origine de tous les Cultes, 1795), F. Nork\u003cbr\u003ein Germany (Biblische Mythologie, 1842), Richard Taylor in England (The\u003cbr\u003eDevil's Pulpit, (1) 1830), were among the first in modern times to put\u003cbr\u003eforward this view. A little later the PHALLIC explanation of everything\u003cbr\u003ecame into fashion. The deities were all polite names for the organs and\u003cbr\u003epowers of procreation. R. P. Knight (Ancient Art and Mythology,\u003cbr\u003e1818) and Dr. Thomas Inman (Ancient Faiths and Ancient Names, 1868)\u003cbr\u003epopularized this idea in England; so did Nork in Germany. Then again\u003cbr\u003ethere was a period of what is sometimes called Euhemerism--the theory\u003cbr\u003ethat the gods and goddesses had actually once been men and women,\u003cbr\u003ehistorical characters round whom a halo of romance and remoteness\u003cbr\u003ehad gathered. Later still, a school has arisen which thinks little of\u003cbr\u003esungods, and pays more attention to Earth and Nature spirits, to gnomes\u003cbr\u003eand demons and vegetation-sprites, and to the processes of Magic by\u003cbr\u003ewhich these (so it was supposed) could be enlisted in man's service if\u003cbr\u003efriendly, or exorcised if hostile.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47167680479472,"sku":"2940015835182","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015835182","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}