Questions about Christian mythology
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is Christian mythology and how is it defined by scholars?
Christian mythology is the body of myths associated with Christianity, examined by scholars in the fields of comparative mythology, theology, and literary studies. In academic usage, myth refers to a traditional or sacred story; folklorists often define myths as "tales believed as true, usually sacred, set in the distant past or other worlds, and with extra-human, inhuman, or heroic characters." The term covers a broad variety of legends and narratives, from canonical scripture to medieval saints' lives to modern fantasy fiction.
What mythological themes recur throughout Christian mythology?
Recurring themes in Christian mythology include ascending a sacred mountain, the axis mundi or world center, combat myths involving a divine being and a monster, descent into the underworld, the dying-and-rising god, flood myths, founding myths, hero myths following a common pattern, paradises, and acts of self-sacrifice. Scholars such as David Leeming, Lorena Laura Stookey, and James George Frazer have each traced these patterns across multiple religious traditions.
How did Zoroastrianism influence Christian mythology?
Mary Boyce, an authority on Zoroastrianism, argued that Zoroaster was the first to teach doctrines of individual judgment, heaven and hell, the resurrection of the body, the Last Judgment, and everlasting life, and that these entered Christianity through borrowings from Judaism. Mircea Eliade added that concepts of good-evil dualism, a future savior, and an optimistic eschatology were discovered or systematized in Iran. The Zoroastrian figures of Ahriman, Amesha Spentas, Yazatas, and Daevas probably gave rise to the Christian understanding of Satan, archangels, angels, and demons.
What is the Harrowing of Hell in Christian mythology?
The Harrowing of Hell is a non-canonical myth in which Christ, after his crucifixion, descends into the land of the dead to rescue the souls of the righteous who had been cut off from heaven due to original sin. The story is narrated in the Gospel of Nicodemus and may be the meaning behind 1 Peter 3:18-22. An Old English poem called "The Harrowing of Hell" describes Christ breaking into Hell and rescuing the Old Testament patriarchs, and the story was widely popular during the Middle Ages.
How did Christian mythology influence modern literature and culture?
Christian mythological structures appear in works by C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle, George MacDonald, and John Milton, whose Paradise Lost is described as an epic elaboration of Judeo-Christian mythology. In 1968, David W. Noble argued that the Adam figure was the central myth in the American novel since 1830, citing Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, Hemingway, and Faulkner. Tom Beaudoin traced Christian mythological patterns into pop-culture phenomena including Madonna's Like a Prayer and Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun.
What role did millennialism play in early Christian mythology?
Millennialism was the early Christian belief that the end times were imminent, taking its name from the thousand-year reign of Christ described in the Book of Revelation. It was prevalent in the early church and especially during periods of persecution, when it comforted believers by predicting an imminent deliverance from suffering regardless of human action. Mircea Eliade identified the Roman Church's eventual condemnation of millennialism as "the first manifestation of the doctrine of progress" in Christianity, as the amillennial position that replaced it held that the Kingdom of God was already present and that humans could improve the world through action.