Alright so I my story deals with Catholicism Paganism ect... since It's based back in the 12th Century. The thing is...I'm a Mormon..not Catholic. I can't even comprehend the Religion. I was just wondering is someone would like to give me a hand..I have friend whose helping me off line but I guess I want help from some people on here. Also anyone know where I can find religions back then? Eheh ^^;; also Mythical Demons back then..
Also about Paganism I know a little and my only Pagan friend has graduate..I wonder if I post this right ^^; Yes the story does depend on the Religions greatly! So Um can anyone give me pointers or information on them. I don't trust Wikipedia too much ^^;; If I posted this wrong I'm sorry..My first year ^^;;.
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'Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.' - Jules de Gaultier
51,807 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2007 - 00 02
This is quite a task.
And the danger is to create unfair and unjust caricatures for both paganism and Catholicism in that era.
One book that you might find in your library, although it deals more with a later era - 1500's or so - is sociologist Rodney Stark's For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery. http://www.amazon.com/Glory-God-Monotheism-Reformations-Witch-Hunts/dp/0.... Stark's theme is about how the attempt to control the behavior of diverse people by a dominant religious group results in the rise of multiple movements characterized as cults.
There's two different historical themes as Christianity spread into a pagan world, both seen in the distinctives between the approach to local paganistic beliefs by Roman vs. Celtic Christianity under St. Patrick in Ireland. That's an earlier time period and there are more resources. One I've read is George Hunter's "The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West...Again" but just putting Celtic christianity into the search engine at Amazon.com brings up a lot. Roman Catholicism attempted to confront, debate and attack pagan forms; Celtic Christians attempted to persuade through warmth, understanding and discussion; in some ways, pagan customs were adapted, adjusted and co-opted into Celtic Christian customs so that the culture was preserved although Christianized. Consequently this sort of history can describe the situations you will probably be writing about and probably provide a lot of good historical examples, events and characters for the conflict between the pagans and Roman Catholics in early Ireland.
Good luck!
Dave Zdras
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Oct 11, 2007 - 16 03
Ahh you have no Idea how much this help ^^! THANK YOU!
Hopefully the book you mention is at my School Library..sometimes High School can be limited, and what you wrote I will be saving it so I can reference back to it if I come at a road block in my story...^^; Thank you again ^^.
----------'Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.' - Jules de Gaultier
3,654 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2007 - 16 41
Maybe I should mention that the plot also mixes with Fantasy. Since there are the Demons witches Vampires Werewolves ect ect.. Yeah...o-o;;;
----------'Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.' - Jules de Gaultier
103,742 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2007 - 18 24
If you begin to add element of fantasy then certain aspects of poltical and religious antagonism start to dissapear. Which could either be constructive or harmful to whatever concept you are trying to explore.
Depends on what the novel is going to be about, and whether you just want to write a story, or have some deeper meaning behind it.
----------I will, however not withhold my opinion, that all people, elect or common, can see that the deliberate malice and pride of the Trikuxion against the Cruxian Church caused countless systems and governments to fragment, into anarchy and furthermore into war
51,807 / 50,000
Oct 14, 2007 - 17 55
Your public library may have an interlibrary loan which will get you one or the other of those books.
You might try these websites as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Christianity
http://www.holytrinitynewrochelle.org/yourti17376.html
http://www.thunderstruck.org/holysmoke/Hunter-Int.htm
(blog) http://patloughery.com/blog/category/celtic/
Two other books George Hunter recommends:
How the Irish Saved Civilization written by Thomas Cahill
Recovering the Past by John Finney
Your high school library might have access to these articles:
http://www.ctlibrary.com/ch/1998/Issue60/60h038.html
TWO THOUGHTS:
1. It's a novel and it's for fun. Don't get too hung up on historical accuracy. Once you put vampires in it, you won't need footnotes.
2. Whenever you find a conflict in the discussion between "Roman Christianity" and "Celtic Christianity" in this discussion, the Celtic approach probably is based on an authentic pagan custom which they want to incorporate and "christianize" and which the "Roman" Catholic approach would want to reject in order to keep the faith "pure." The contrast will give you some genuine examples of conflict between catholic and pagan traditions which your characters could then act out.
For example, the celtic cross which has a circle around it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_cross) combines the image of the christian cross with the pagan symbol of the full moon ... this might give you the two extremes to write about.
Good luck to you!
Dave
PS George Hunter, like myself, is a United Methodist. If you know a United Methodist pastor, he/she might have this book and let you read over it.
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Oct 14, 2007 - 21 37
I'm doing Catholic / Pagan in 17th C France although I posted on the Mystery board, I guess it would fit here also.
Medieval Catholic Church was pretty intent on spreading the faith, stamping out heresy, and that would include paganismn. There were of course pockets(families) who practiced the Old Religions. If you know what region you're writing about, you can probably get a good and quick idea of the tolerance by checking the political climate.
If it's any help, I grew up Catholic but practice a nature religion.
karen
3,654 / 50,000
Oct 15, 2007 - 19 04
Ahh thanks ^^ I think it will just be a story..maybe if there is a meaning it will be about Repentances and Tolerance..if ^^;; but it will most likely be a story...I guess for my own entertainment..but I LOVE learning new things ^^!! Anyways I just don't want to offend anyone and I dislike being wrong. Not that it's a ego thing but I get embarrassed...But thank you all for your help..Those Websites and advice will really help ^^.
----------'Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.' - Jules de Gaultier
17,395 / 50,000
Oct 19, 2007 - 02 08
What strain of Paganism? Paganism isn't *a* religion, it's an umbrella term for a hundred or more religions. If I knew where you were headed with the Pagan aspect, I could probably point you at a couple of good references. This book may be somewhat askew of your time period, but I know it comes very highly recommended from more scholarly Pagan types.
I've got Angels and Demons oh my! in my plot, too, so if you pass on any good demon reference material you find to me, I'd be happy to help you with any Paganism questions. :)
61,111 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2007 - 22 29
There have been some very good ideas so far suggested by others. If you're dealing with the 12th century, one more thing that could be worth looking into as background is how the Catholics dealt with the Cathars (who were not pagan though). The time frame is just slightly later (crusade against the Cathars was in the early 13th century), but it would give you an idea of how the church back then thought and reacted to things. For example, you could have a look at this page:
http://www.languedoc-france.info/12_cathars.htm
Or Google "cathars" and see what comes up.
If you need to ask questions about Catholicism in general, feel free to NaNoMail me, as I'm a Catholic and can try to answer your questions.
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