Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning

by Edward Carpenter

Overview

CONTENTS Introductory Solar Myths and Christian Festivals The Symbolism of the Zodiac Totem-Sacraments and Eucharists Food and Vegetation Magic Magicians, Kings and Gods Rites of Expiation and Redemption Pagan Initiations and the Second Birth Myth of the Golden Age The Saviour-God and the Virgin-Mother Ritual Dancing The Sex-Taboo The Genesis of Christianity The Meaning of it All The Ancient Mysteries The Exodus of Christianity Conclusion Appendix on the Teachings of the Upanishads I Rest II. The Nature of the Self Index Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) had a Cambridge education, and then joined the church as a curate. He left the church in 1874 and came a lecturer in astronomy. He was born into a wealthy family, but he eschewed the trappings of wealth because he believed that the first step toward Utopia, or the "New Life," was the elimination of the class hierarchy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781410225054
Publisher:	University Press of the Pacific
Publication date:	10/19/2005
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Edward Carpenter (29 August 1844 - 28 June 1929) was an English socialist poet, socialist philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist.

A leading figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century Britain, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and the Labour Party. A poet and writer, he was a close friend of Walt Whitman and Rabindranath Tagore, corresponding with many famous figures such as Annie Besant, Isadora Duncan, Havelock Ellis, Roger Fry, Mahatma Gandhi, James Keir Hardie, J. K. Kinney, Jack London, George Merrill, E D Morel, William Morris, E R Pease, John Ruskin, and Olive Schreiner.

As a philosopher he is particularly known for his publication of Civilization, Its Cause and Cure in which he proposes that civilization is a form of disease that human societies pass through. Civilizations, he says, rarely last more than a thousand years before collapsing, and no society has ever passed through civilization successfully. His 'cure' is a closer association with the land and greater development of our inner nature. Although derived from his experience of Hindu mysticism, and referred to as 'mystical socialism', his thoughts parallel those of several writers in the field of psychology and sociology at the start of the twentieth century, such as Boris Sidis, Sigmund Freud and Wilfred Trotter who all recognised that society puts ever increasing pressure on the individual that can result in mental and physical illnesses such as neurosis and the particular nervousness which was then described as neurasthenia.

An early advocate of sexual freedoms, he had a profound influence on both D. H. Lawrence and Aurobindo, and inspired E. M. Forster's novel Maurice.

Read an Excerpt

Imitation is not only the sincerest flattery, but it is often the most subtle and effective way of defeating a rival. The priests of the rising Christian Church were, like the priests of all religions, not wanting in craft; and at this moment when the question of a World-religion was in the balance, it was an obvious policy for them to throw into their own scale as many elements as possible of the popular Pagan cults. Mithraism had been flourishing for 600 years; and it is, to say the least, curious that the Mithraic doctrines and legends which I have just mentioned should all have been adopted (quite unintentionally of course!) into Christianity; and still more so that some others from the same source, like the legend of the Shepherds at the Nativity and the doctrine of the Resurrection and Ascension, which are not mentioned at all in the original draft of the earliest Gospel (St. Mark), should have made their appearance in the Christian writings at a later time, when Mithraism was making great forward strides. History shows that as a Church progresses and expands it generally feels compelled to enlarge and fortify its own foundations by inserting material which was not there first. I shall shortly give another illustration of this; at present I will merely point out that the Christian writers, as time went on, not only introduced new doctrines, legends, miracles and so forth -- most of which they took especial pains to destroy the pagan records and so obliterate the evidence of their own dishonesty. -- from Chapter XIII, The Genesis of Christianity

Table of 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
XIV.   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

Index