Editing Christian mythology (section)

==Historical development==
[[File:Taby kyrka Death playing chess.jpg|thumb|left|Medieval painting of [[Personifications of death|Death]] playing chess from [[Täby|Täby Church]] in Sweden]]

===From Roman Empire to Europe===

After Christian theology was accepted by the Roman Empire, promoted by [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]] in the 5th century, Christian mythology began to predominate the Roman Empire. Later the theology was carried north by [[Charlemagne]] and the [[Franks|Frankish]] people, and Christian themes began to weave into the framework of European [[mythology|mythologies]].<ref>Eliade 1963:162–181</ref> The pre-Christian [[Continental Germanic mythology|Germanic]] and [[Celtic mythology]] that were native to the tribes of Northern Europe were denounced and submerged, while saint myths, Mary stories, [[Crusade]] myths, and other Christian myths took their place. However, pre-Christian myths never went entirely away, they mingled with the (Roman Catholic) Christian framework to form new stories, like myths of the [[mythological kings]] and [[saints]] and [[miracle]]s, for example (Eliade 1963:162–181). Stories such as that of [[Beowulf]] and Icelandic, Norse, and Germanic sagas were reinterpreted somewhat, and given Christian meanings. The legend of [[King Arthur]] and the quest for the [[Holy Grail]] is a striking example.<ref>Treharne 1971</ref> The thrust of incorporation took on one of two directions. When Christianity was on the advance, pagan myths were Christianized; when it was in retreat, Bible stories and Christian saints lost their mythological importance to the culture.

===Middle Ages===
According to Mircea Eliade, the [[Middle Ages]] witnessed "an upwelling of mythical thought" in which each social group had its own "mythological traditions".<ref name="eliade82">Eliade, ''Myths, Rites, Symbols'', vol. 1, 82</ref> Often a profession had its own "origin myth" which established models for members of the profession to imitate; for example, the knights tried to imitate [[Lancelot]] or [[Percival|Parsifal]].<ref name="eliade82"/> The medieval [[trouveres]] developed a "mythology of woman and Love" which incorporated Christian elements but, in some cases, ran contrary to official church teaching.<ref name="eliade82"/>

George Every includes a discussion of medieval legends in his book ''Christian Mythology''. Some medieval legends elaborated upon the lives of Christian figures such as Christ, the [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Virgin Mary]], and the saints. For example, a number of legends describe miraculous events surrounding Mary's birth and her marriage to Joseph.<ref group="n">According to one legend, Anna, Christ's maternal grandmother, initially cannot conceive; in response to Anna's lament, an angel appears and tells her that she will have a child (Mary) who will be spoken of throughout the world (Every 76–77). Some medieval legends about Mary's youth describe her as living "a life of ideal asceticism", fed by angels. In these legends, an angel tells Zacharias, the future father of John the Baptist, to assemble the local widowers; after the widowers have been assembled, some miracle indicates that, among them, Joseph is to be Mary's wife (according to one version of the legend, a dove comes from Joseph's rod and settles on his head) (Every 78).</ref>

In many cases, medieval mythology appears to have inherited elements from myths of pagan gods and heroes.<ref>Every 94, 96</ref><ref>Eliade, ''Myth and Reality'', 162–181</ref> According to Every, one example may be "[[Saint George and the Dragon|the myth of St. George]]" and other stories about saints battling dragons, which were "modelled no doubt in many cases on older representations of the creator and preserver of the world in combat with chaos".<ref>Every 95</ref> Eliade notes that some "mythological traditions" of medieval knights, namely the [[King Arthur|Arthurian cycle]] and the [[Holy Grail|Grail theme]], combine a veneer of Christianity with traditions regarding the [[Celtic Otherworld]].<ref name="eliade82"/> According to Lorena Laura Stookey, "many scholars" see a link between stories in "Irish-Celtic mythology" about journeys to the Otherworld in search of a cauldron of rejuvenation and medieval accounts of the quest for the Holy Grail.<ref>Stookey 153</ref>

According to Eliade, "[[eschatological myth]]s" became prominent during the Middle Ages during "certain historical movements".<ref name="eliade83">Eliade, ''Myths, Rites, Symbols'', vol. 1, 83</ref> These eschatological myths appeared "in the [[Crusade]]s, in the movements of a [[Tanchelm]] and an [[Eudes de l'Etoile]], in the elevation of [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Fredrick II]] to the rank of Messiah, and in many other collective messianic, utopian, and prerevolutionary phenomena".<ref name="eliade83"/> One significant eschatological myth, introduced by [[Joachim of Fiore|Gioacchino da Fiore]]'s theology of history, was the "myth of an imminent third age that will renew and complete history" in a "reign of the Holy Spirit"; this "Gioacchinian myth" influenced a number of messianic movements that arose in the late Middle Ages.<ref name="eliade84-85">Eliade, ''Myths, Rites, Symbols'', vol. 1, 84–85</ref>

===Renaissance and Reformation===
During the Renaissance, there arose a critical attitude that sharply distinguished between [[Sacred Tradition|apostolic tradition]] and what George Every calls "subsidiary mythology"—popular legends surrounding saints, relics, the cross, etc.—suppressing the latter.<ref>Every 21</ref>
[[File:San Giovanni Evangelista in Ravenna, unicorn.jpg|right|thumb|[[Unicorn]] [[mosaic]] on a 1213  church floor in [[Ravenna]]]]
The works of Renaissance writers often included and expanded upon Christian and non-Christian stories such as those of creation and the [[Fall of man|Fall]]. Rita Oleyar describes these writers as "on the whole, reverent and faithful to the primal myths, but filled with their own insights into the nature of God, man, and the universe".<ref name ="oleyar40-41">Oleyar 40–41</ref> An example is [[John Milton]]'s ''[[Paradise Lost]]'', an "epic elaboration of the Judeo-Christian mythology" and also a "veritable encyclopedia of myths from the Greek and Roman tradition".<ref name ="oleyar40-41"/>

According to Cynthia Stewart, during the Reformation, the Protestant reformers used "the [[founding myth]]s of Christianity" to critique the church of their time.<ref>Stewart 72–73</ref>

Every argues that "the disparagement of myth in our own civilization" stems partly from objections to perceived idolatry, objections which intensified in the Reformation, both among Protestants and among Catholics reacting against the classical mythology revived during the Renaissance.<ref>Every 11</ref>

===Enlightenment===
The [[philosophes]] of the Enlightenment used criticism of myth as a vehicle for veiled criticisms of the Bible and the church.<ref>Lincoln 49</ref> According to [[Bruce Lincoln]], the philosophes "made irrationality the hallmark of myth and constituted philosophy—rather than the Christian ''[[kerygma]]''—as the antidote for mythic discourse. By implication, Christianity could appear as a more recent, powerful, and dangerous instance of irrational myth".<ref>Lincoln 50</ref>

Since the end of the 18th century, the biblical stories have lost some of their mythological basis to western society, owing to the scepticism of the [[enlightenment age|Enlightenment]], 19th-century [[freethinkers|freethinking]], and 20th century [[modernism]]. Most westerners no longer found Christianity to be their primary imaginative and mythological framework by which they understand the world. However other scholars believe mythology is in our psyche, and that mythical influences of Christianity are in many of our ideals, for example the Judeo-Christian idea of an after-life and heaven.<ref>Eliade 1963:184</ref> The book ''[[Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X]]'' by [[Tom Beaudoin]] explores the premise that Christian mythology is present in the mythologies of pop-culture, such as Madonna's ''[[Like a Prayer (song)|Like a Prayer]]'' or Soundgarden's ''[[Black Hole Sun]].'' Modern myths are strong in comic book stories (as stories of [[culture hero]]es) and detective novels as myths of good versus evil.<ref>Eliade 1963:185</ref>

===Modern period===
Some commentators have categorized a number of modern fantasy works as "Christian myth" or "Christian [[mythopoeia]]". Examples include the fiction of [[C. S. Lewis]], [[Madeleine L'Engle]], [[J.R.R. Tolkien]], and [[George MacDonald]].<ref>Hein, throughout</ref><ref group="n">An example of this kind of "mythopoeic" literary criticism can be found in Oziewicz 178: "What L'Engle's Christian myth is and in what sense her [[Time Quartet|''Time Quartet'']] qualifies as Christian mythopoeia can thus be glimpsed from both critical assessment of her work and her own reflection as presented in interviews and her voluminous non-fiction."</ref>

In ''The Eternal Adam and the New World Garden'', written in 1968, [[David W. Noble]] argued that the Adam figure had been "the central myth in the American novel since 1830".<ref name ="oleyar40-41"/><ref group="n">The full title of Noble's book is ''The Eternal Adam and the New World Garden: The Central Myth in the American Novel since 1830''.</ref> As examples, he cites the works of Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, Hemingway, and Faulkner.<ref name ="oleyar40-41"/>