Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning (Aziloth Books) - Softcover

Carpenter, Edward

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908388927 ISBN 13: 9781908388926

Publisher: Aziloth Books, 2013

Synopsis

Edward Carpenter's book is a fascinating account of the relation between Christian and pagan belief-systems. Drawing on a wide range of sources, the author shows the continuity of theological and cosmological thought that underpins both Christianity and other earlier religions. The parallels are striking: long before Christianity, as Carpenter points out, many pagans worshipped god-men born of virgin mothers on the 25th December. This perceptive analysis covers such topics as rites of expiation and redemption, the use of sacraments and eucharist, the blood sacrifice, and solar mythology, ranging across a wide swathe of ancient and tribal beliefs and finding numerous points of correspondence with Christian dogma. An intriguing feast of fact and startling 'coincidences', and a must-read for anyone interested in esotericism, pagan ritual or the origins of Christianity.

About this title

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Aziloth Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1908388927
• ISBN 13: 9781908388926
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 190