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But why is it not a pillar of ancient Celtic religion, for example? They were literally burning people in wicker cages for religious reasons. When you say "burn

by jhgb 5y ago

But why is it not a pillar of ancient Celtic religion, for example? They were literally burning people in wicker cages for religious reasons. When you say "burning man", I certainly imagine druids much more readily than Christianity.

amanaplanacanal 5y ago
I expect most Americans are much more familiar with Christianity than with ancient Celtic religion.
bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
Which religion do you think of when I say “burning woman?”
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  Hinduism, obviously. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice)
- jhgb 5y ago
  The Lord of Light, probably.
WJW 5y ago
The Celtic practices are apparently in some doubt these days, since "fake news" had already been invented in Roman times. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicker_man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicker_man for more details) In any cases, burning some poor bloke as a sacrifice to the gods seems of a different order than building the main thrust of your symbolism (ie, crosses everywhere) around the death of your main prophet figure. Many religions did the former, very few seem to have done the latter.
cjfd 5y ago
It probably is the pillar of christianity just because it is what happened. It is rather shocking if the founder is executed in such a brutal way so you need to make a story around that. It is in fact so shocking that the story pretty much turned out to need to redefine reality or god or something like that. Nobody understands this trinity stuff anyway.... And then you can choose to believe it of or not believe it...
- jhgb 5y ago
  > It is rather shocking if the founder is executed in such a brutal way so you need to make a story around that. Not sure what's shocking about it. Probably tens of thousands of people were executed in the same way; it was a commonplace method of execution at the time. Are you shocked by lethal injection, for example?
  - petre 5y ago
    Except we no longer execute people for association and organising peaceful protests nowadays. Not in civilized countries anyway.
    - jhgb 5y ago
      I think the key word here is "today". I'm not telling you to judge 2000 year old events from the POV of modern sensibilities.
Hoasi 5y ago
Perhaps because Christianity was a better proponent of sadomasochistic tendencies than pagan rites ever were. It looks as if it was also a huge component of its success.
pjc50 5y ago
What is specifically Christian about the death of Christ is that he's the final sacrifice. He's also the highest ranking sacrifice - the son of God - and he is resurrected afterwards. He is the one-off payment to redeem humanity. It's also a sacrifice that christians can participate in despite it happening twenty centuries ago by drinking his blood and eating his body. (Lapsed church of England here; while I don't believe this myself I was thoroughly taught it. Interesting that it's no longer so dominant that everyone has a background awareness of what the doctrine is. Difficult to interpret much pre-1800 European art without it)

by jhgb 5y ago

amanaplanacanal 5y ago

I expect most Americans are much more familiar with Christianity than with ancient Celtic religion.

bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago

Which religion do you think of when I say “burning woman?”

thaumasiotes 5y ago
Hinduism, obviously. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice)
jhgb 5y ago
The Lord of Light, probably.

WJW 5y ago

The Celtic practices are apparently in some doubt these days, since "fake news" had already been invented in Roman times. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicker_man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicker_man for more details) In any cases, burning some poor bloke as a sacrifice to the gods seems of a different order than building the main thrust of your symbolism (ie, crosses everywhere) around the death of your main prophet figure. Many religions did the former, very few seem to have done the latter.

cjfd 5y ago

It probably is the pillar of christianity just because it is what happened. It is rather shocking if the founder is executed in such a brutal way so you need to make a story around that. It is in fact so shocking that the story pretty much turned out to need to redefine reality or god or something like that. Nobody understands this trinity stuff anyway.... And then you can choose to believe it of or not believe it...

jhgb 5y ago
> It is rather shocking if the founder is executed in such a brutal way so you need to make a story around that. Not sure what's shocking about it. Probably tens of thousands of people were executed in the same way; it was a commonplace method of execution at the time. Are you shocked by lethal injection, for example?
- petre 5y ago
  Except we no longer execute people for association and organising peaceful protests nowadays. Not in civilized countries anyway.
  - jhgb 5y ago
    I think the key word here is "today". I'm not telling you to judge 2000 year old events from the POV of modern sensibilities.

Hoasi 5y ago

Perhaps because Christianity was a better proponent of sadomasochistic tendencies than pagan rites ever were. It looks as if it was also a huge component of its success.

pjc50 5y ago

What is specifically Christian about the death of Christ is that he's the final sacrifice. He's also the highest ranking sacrifice - the son of God - and he is resurrected afterwards. He is the one-off payment to redeem humanity. It's also a sacrifice that christians can participate in despite it happening twenty centuries ago by drinking his blood and eating his body. (Lapsed church of England here; while I don't believe this myself I was thoroughly taught it. Interesting that it's no longer so dominant that everyone has a background awareness of what the doctrine is. Difficult to interpret much pre-1800 European art without it)