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Comparing and Contrasting Paganism to Christianity

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With the creation of the Christian religion followers of it obtained peace and tried their best to avoid the impurities of the world, interestingly enough, these “worldly” impurities consume the religion that is Paganism, which Christianity is heavily based off of. As time has progressed mankind has always searched for their purpose. Religion is often used to help one discover their ultimate purpose and give them guidelines to live a pure life by that may be amorphous without spiritual guidance. The religious fundamentals in Christianity help its believers to fathom why they are on this Earth and what their greater purpose is. Unknowingly, they develop their character through this religion without knowing that it is heavily stemmed from Paganism! Many practices, cultural elements, and habits in Paganism are strongly seen as ignoble by a majority of the modern Christians. A supreme amount of the text in the Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf help to entirely clarify the religious transitions that have occurred between both Paganism and Christianity. Throughout the ages, human beings used a religious power to help them evaluate their lives and wellbeing, specifically Paganism, Christianity; the transition from paganism to Christianity illustrates how much religion effects one’s life.
To distinguish the changeover from the two religions (Paganism and Christianity) it is unquestionably vital to understand what Paganism actually is. “Sometimes at pagan shrines they vowed/offerings to idols, swore oaths/that the killer of souls might come to their aid/and save the people. That was their way,/their heathenish hope; deep in their hearts/they remembered hell.” (Heaney 170-180). The Danes engaged in several pagan practices such as idol...

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...oots, whether appreciated or not Paganism helped form Christianity to what it is today.

Works Cited

Stanley, Tim. "Give Me That Old Time Religion." History Today 63.8 (2013): 50. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.CHURCH, S. D. "Paganism In Conversion-Age Anglo-Saxon England: The Evidence Of Bede's Ecclesiastical History Reconsidered." History 93.310 (2008): 162-180. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.Mayfield, Tyler. "Hebrew Bible." Masterplots II: Christian Literature (2007): 1-7. Literary Reference Center. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.Alward, Emily. "The Soul Of Christianity." Masterplots II: Christian Literature (2007): 1-2. Literary Reference Center. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.Hallissy, Margaret. "Christianity, The Pagan Past, And The Rituals Of Construction In William Golding's The Spire." Critique 49.3 (2008): 319-331. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.
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