title: Christian Mythology: Revelations of Pagan Origins
author: Philippe Walter
description: Walter writes in a distinguished academic tradition that goes back to Jesse L. Weston and Sir James Frazier. He describes a rich complex of pagan, European traditions that inform Christian ritual. In doing so, he illuminates beliefs that underlie some of our most cherished stories and practices. I will recommend this book to my students. (<i>Steve Harris, associate professor of English, University of Massachusetts</i>)<br /><br />It is generally understood that Christianity strengthened its position early on in the popular mind by usurping and bending pagan rituals and sacred locales. In this ambitious scholarly treatise, professor of medieval French literature Walter marries the pagan and Christian calendars in great detail by examining ancient myths, saints, and celebrations. He visits All Saints Day, the Twelve Days of Christmas, Candlemas, Easter, Ascension, St. Johns Day of Summer, St. Peters Chains Day, and St. Michaels Day to find that these yearly rounds, roughly 40 days apart, share a mythical realm with the dates of Carnival, best understood as a religion--it was even the religion preceding Christianity. Walters sources include acts of councils, confessors manuals, literary texts such as Arthurian romances, hagiographic works, and medieval iconography. While he doesnt attack Christianity on its spiritual merits, he concludes boldly that Christianity would have had no chance of imposing itself in the West if, on certain points of dogma and rites, it had not responded to the religious needs of the converted pagans. . . . This volume makes a strong scholarly contribution to understanding the evolution of belief, where it is important to understand that nothing has been lost or created. (<i>Publishers Weekly</i>)
zlib_text:  
  
  PAGAN 
  REGENERATION 
  A STUDY OF MYSTERY INITIATIONS IN 
  THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD 
  BY  
  HAROLD R. WILLOUGHBY 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  CHICAGO., ILL., THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
  ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1929 
  
  Pagan Regeneration By Harold R. Willoughby. 
  This edition created and published by Global Grey 2013. 
   
   
  GLOBAL GREY 
  NOTHING BUT E-BOOKS 
   
   
  
  TABLE OF CONTENTS 
  PREFACE 
  CHAPTER 1. PAGAN PIETY IN THE GRAECO-ROMAN 
  WORLD 
  CHAPTER 2. THE GREATER MYSTERIES AT ELEUSIS 
  CHAPTER 3. DIONYSIAN EXCESSES 
  CHAPTER 4. ORPHIC REFORM 
  CHAPTER 5. THE REGENERATIVE RITES OF THE GREAT 
  MOTHER 
  CHAPTER 6. DEATH AND NEW BIRTH IN MITHRAISM 
  CHAPTER 7. ISIAC INITIATION 
  CHAPTER 8. THE NEW BIRTH EXPERIENCE IN 
  HERMETICISM 
  CHAPTER 9. THE MYSTICISM OF PHILO 
   
  CHAPTER 10. THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MYSTERY 
  INITIATION 
  
  PREFACE 
  IT MUST frankly be confessed that this study of mystery initiations in 
  the Graeco-Roman world is but a prolegomenon to further research in 
  early Christian origins. For some y