What are some examples of religious syncretism throughout history? One fairly interesting example to me are the indigenous peoples working as miners in Bolivia.
>Indigenous people that are nominally Catholic, identify as such, go to church >Work in mines >Recognition that above-ground is "God's world" whereas once underground in the mines you are in the realm of Satan >Actual idols to Satan being worshiped in the mines, tribute and prayers given to them >Each mine shaft has its own, unique variation of Satan >Actual sacrifices of animals performed at the entrances to mine shafts
Keep in mind that these people have nothing to do with edgy counter-culture satanism that you see in America. If you'd like to see more of what I've mentioned check out the Devil's Miner.
What's interesting about this is that the worship of Satan as a separate deity, as well as the fact that multiple different 'Satans' are revered, is really a holdover from Andean polytheism.
Jayden Nguyen
yo that shits crazy
Elijah Long
Satan gives them a small lift
Jason Morris
metal as fuck this only makes it more so
Mason Bell
they call him El Tio (uncle) isn´t that cute
Eli Peterson
Look at that demon dick
Lucas Jones
Voodoo is mostly a blend of West African folk religions and Catholicism.
I recall reading a piece on faith healing for a cultural anthropology class. The faith healer went to church to ask God's permission to associate with the spirits that he needed help from to perform the healing.
Jordan Lewis
They chew coca leaves they dont snort cocaine
Kayden Rodriguez
I like the brazilian cult of St George
Tyler Cruz
They chew coca leaf with bicarbonate, the high is just the same. Been there, done that
Kayden Adams
Christianity itself, especially in its earlier days, was enormously syncretic between traditional Hebrew theology and Hellenistic influences, especially the whole death and resurrection of the deity to protect the deity's followers.
Liam Ward
babbys first syncretism watch this
Logan Wood
Modern Korean Christianity is pretty wacky
Jordan Taylor
The entirety of East Asian religious scene..
Ranging from Buddhism's inclusion in local philosophies and religions. Buddhism bringing Indian deities into local pantheons, and Koreans and Nips routinely including Chinese deities & mythologies into their own.
Pic related. The Chinese judge of the afterlife, Yanluo, was based off Yama, the Hindu-Buddhist God of Death. In China though, Yanluo is not a god but a mere judge who passes sentences on souls entering the afterlife.
Luke Evans
I should add, even Christcuckery isnt safe from East Asian syncretism.
A lot of Christians praise the fact that Christianity is increasing in convesion in China without knowing that a lot of this involves localization of Christ into local practices and Pantheons.
Landon Nelson
There is something called "chrislam" which is a blend between Christianity and Islam among the Yoruba people
Kayden Cox
Tell us more.
Jaxson Campbell
That mexican cult of lady death is basically indigenous Mexican beliefs mixed with Virgin Marry reverence.
It's actually a growing religion and not a tiny thing, afaik.
How has no one brought up Bactrian Greco-Buddhism yet?
Jacob Davis
Bump.
Alexander Miller
Fucking Mexicans.
Luis Peterson
The Alevi
Wyatt Torres
...
Mason Parker
IIRC According to Bede, during a plague in Anglo Saxon Britain the populace reverted to paganism and many people kept altars simultaneously to Jesus and other gods.
Also Romano-British syncretism between native Brythonic deities and Roman ones.
imo syncretism should be 'the natural state' for religion
Jack Carter
The way Christinianity coopted the religious structures of the empire once it became the favored religion of the emperors, making minor changes of ultimately little consequence to be acceptable to your average citizen while keeping a pretty radical core (“Oh yeah, you can totally continue to celebrate Saturnalia, it’s the day Jesus was born!”). That’s fascinating to me. The cult of saints, especially Mary, to fill a void for more accessible spirituality is also very interesting. God is all powerful, all knowing, all everything: he might be good, but he’s scary. The saints are just normal, particularly good and blessed people that are sitting in heaven already and could intervene for you. They don’t have powers, they just could slip in a good word, and they know it’s harsh down there. Especially Mary, born without sin, sure, but she has suffered immensely. You can confide in her. I find this adorable. I wonder how it might have emerged: naturally and the clergy just rolled with it since it’s great for conversion and usually it stayed pretty tame, or was it first “designed” by missionaries, kinda like how they explained ancient Gods were just heroes blown out of proportion.
Colton King
>imo syncretism should be 'the natural state' for religion
It is. Polytheistic religions rarely have a strict pantheon and have a tendency to just absord good concepts and gods from other faiths (Jesus being in the fuckhuge Hindu pantheon, for example). Monotheistic religions pretend they don’t do it as well, but christianity does it a lot by putting a new coat of paint on old deities, islam has tons of old pagans djinns kicking around. Judaism and the more autistic protestants offshoot might be the less “guilty” of it.
Chase Price
Wtf is wrong with them, do they have their cheeks full of coca leaves?
Aiden Stewart
During the migration period alot of germanic christians worshipped Jesus as somthing a kin to a warrior god IIRC.
Christianity-East Asian syncretism is much older than this supposed growth of Christianity in China today. Medieval Mongols and Chinese treated being part of the Church and being Buddhist as completely compatible. The surviving counterparts in India, the St. Thomas Christians of Kerala, also follow more Hindu practices than usual (I think) and were once known as Buddhists. So Christianity was always seen as similar to Buddhism.
Ryan Nelson
Looks like the Spanish did a piss poor job at "converting" the natives.
Camden Johnson
Isn't the founder of that church in the Forbes list of richest people in the world?
>but christianity does it a lot by putting a new coat of paint on old deities, islam has tons of old pagans djinns kicking around.
Yeah, but that's all 'folk religion'.
Chase Davis
?
Michael Perry
...
Benjamin Stewart
Are there still some Indians who believe in Greek gods, along with their own?
Jordan Martin
Hinduism basically ate Buddhism alive in India, so that Buddhism is basically dead in its own birthplace The Japanese Christian sects (Kakure Christians) that sprung up after Christianity was repressed in the 17th and 18th centuries basically had to improvise after all the actual priests were kicked out, and it ended up syncretizing with Buddhism and taking on properties of ancestor-worship but centered on the Christian martyrs. Notably, Mary was fused with the Buddhist goddess of mercy, Kannon, a depiction known as Maria-Kannon. They were thought to have died out completely when the Catholic Church was allowed back in in the 19th century (and the Kakure Christians learned that their version of Christianity was basically fanfiction) but around 1980 or so a few surviving practitioners were found over in Nagasaki.
He is a billionaire and owns a lot of major media outlets here.
You have no idea how much of a lucrative business protestant evangelical churches are here in Brazil, specially in poor areas since for some reason poor people tend to be into evangelicalism. I wish I was joking when I tell you that these churches pop up EVERYWHERE in poor regions, every corner of the poor parts of my city has an evangelical church. The followers tend to be very obnoxious, full of themselves and extremely intolerant as well because the leaders of these churches brainwash the followers into devoting their lives to the church, giving up whatever money they have "to help build more churches and spread the word of god", being intolerant of other religions (which they feel very proud of), "spreading the message" by being as publicly obnoxious as they can, among many other things. The followers are so braindead they will believe practically anything their leaders tell them, and I mean ANYTHING. These people are out of their minds and what happens inside of these churches is utter and complete insanity.
So Jesus becomes a manager God while the Saints become something like Mini Gods under Jesus while God is the big boss?
Christian Gomez
The Marian cult was the natural evolution of the cult of Isis which was growing in Rome in tandem with Christianity
>both regularly depicted as a mother with child >both offering universal forgiveness as opposed to the sterner male deities
Brayden Brooks
Next you’ll tell us about the Apollo = Jesus theory. Or Jesus = Osiris. Or that Mary was in fact raped by a Roman soldier named Pantera, it depends on the mood of you people. Religions having coincidental superficial aspects means nothing, at best it shows what people unconsciously seek in faith. And certainly not that there was some concerted effort or repurposing.
The fact that you think Mary is to do with forgiveness shows how misinformed you are. God already offers universal forgiveness. Wether you have that forgiveness by faith alone or through faith, repentance and good works is a debate, but in all cases He is the only one that forgives. Mary is, at best (depends on the denomination), a privileged intercessor. She can only pray for us, plead our cause to God. Of course as a woman who has lived and sufferered on Earth she is seen as closer to us, but she can’t offer anything other than comfort and motherly benevolence.
Lucas Reed
Mary and Jesus are Persephone and Dionysos, not Isis and Horus.