Pagan and Christian Creeds

Their Origin and Meaning

By Edward Carpenter

“The different religions being lame attempts to represent under various guises this one root-fact of the central universal life, men have at all times clung to the religious creeds and rituals and ceremonials as symbolizing in some rude way the redemption and fulfillment of their own most intimate natures—and this whether consciously understanding the interpretations, or whether (as most often) only doing so in an unconscious or quite subconscious way.”

                                                                                                                                                                    The Drama of Love and Death, p. 96.

CONTENTS

I.    INTRODUCTORY

II.   SOLAR MYTHS AND CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS

III. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ZODIAC

IV. TOTEM-SACRAMENTS AND EUCHARISTS

V.  FOOD AND VEGETATION MAGIC

VI. MAGICIANS, KINGS AND GODS

VII.      RITES OF EXPIATION AND REDEMPTION

VIII.     PAGAN INITIATIONS AND THE SECOND BIRTH

IX. MYTH OF THE GOLDEN AGE

X.  THE SAVIOR-GOD AND THE VIRGIN-MOTHER

XI. RITUAL DANCING

XII.      THE SEX-TABOO

XIII.     THE GENESIS OF CHRISTIANITY

XV.      THE MEANING OF IT ALL

XV.      THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES

XVI.    THE EXODUS OF CHRISTIANITY

XVII.   CONCLUSION

APPENDIX ON THE TEACHINGS OF THE UPANISHADS:

I.    REST

II.   THE NATURE OF THE SELF

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Pagan and Christian Creeds