Excerpts from The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation by James C. Russell (1994 Edition):
I'm providing these experts from this scholarly book because the book shows the evidence for my view that most Christians today are not really "New Testament Christians" but are acting out a more Germanized (Pagan) version of Christianity. Also see the book Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola, for further evidence of this. Note: Words in bold are my own for emphasis.
From the PREFACE:
For at least the preceding millennium, from the coronation of the Saxon King Otto I as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII on February 2, 962, ... the religiocultural orientation of popular Roman Catholicism was predominantly European and largely Germanic.[2] ...
... Dulles comments: "Originally centred in the Mediterranean countries, Catholic Christianity later found its primary home in Europe. ... Christianity was in possession as the religion of Europeans, ...
... Primarily to advance the perception of its universality, the post-Vatican II Church has sought to shed its predominantly Western, European image. This modification may be witnessed in the Church's ecumenical relationships with representatives of non-European Christianity and non-Christian religions, in its appointment of more non-European prelates, in its canonization of more non-European saints, and in its virtual elimination of Germanic elements from liturgical rites.[4] The increased involvement of the Church in social-justice issues may also reflect an attempt to distance itself from the aristocratic character of a Germanized medieval Church and an attempt to recapture the religiocultural orientation of the early Church of the apostolic and patristic eras. One reason for this current direction may be that the present era, with its densely populated cosmopolitan areas that contain sizable, alienated underclasses, has a social environment somewhat more akin to the urbanized Roman Empire of late antiquity than to the rural agrarian-warrior societies of early medieval Germanic Europe. ...
PART I:
Toward a Model of Religious Transformation
1. Transformations of Christianity 11
2. Conversion, Christianization, and Germanization 26 ...
INTRODUCTION:
This inquiry applies ... to the pivotal religious transformation which occurred as a result of the encounter of the Germanic peoples with Christianity. ... It is proposed that Christianization efforts among the Germanic peoples resulted in a substantial Germanization of Christianity.
... the worldview of the Indo-European Greek, Roman, and Germanic religions was essentially folk-centered and "world-accepting," whereas the world-view of the East ern mystery religions and early Christianity was essentially soteriological and eschatological, hence "world-rejecting."
Equally significant, and related to this distinction, is the assertion that the social structure of the Germanic peoples at the time of their encounter with Christianity reflected a high level of group solidarity, while the urban social environment in which early Christianity flourished was one in which alienation and normlessness or anomie prevailed. ...
I highlighted the words in bold above because this aligns with my own research. For example, the true meaning of a christian or saint in the New Testament is basically a world-denying and body-despising "living sacrifice." Unlike the Germanic worldview that was more this-world-centered, with the Germanic Gods modeling a Life-affirming worldview, Pauline New Testament Christianity was all about imitating a suffering and dying Messiah, not strong virial Gods like Odin and Thor. In order to convince the German people to convert to Christianity it was modified and retold in more masculine ways. For example, the Gospels were rewritten to appeal to Germanic peoples through The Heliand ("The Saxon Gospel").
The introduction continues:
... For Christianity to be accepted by the Germanic peoples, it was necessary that it be perceived as responsive to the heroic, religiopolitical, and magicoreligious orienta tion of the Germanic world-view. A religion which did not appear to be concerned with fundamental military, agricultural, and personal matters could not hope to gain acceptance among the Germanic peoples, since the pre-Christian Germanic religiosity already provided adequate responses to these matters. An unintended result of implementing a missionary policy which accommodated Germanic concerns was the Germanization of early medieval Christianity. Although this accommodation apparently was originally intended to have been merely a temporary and regional transition to a more thorough doctrinal and ethical acceptance of Christianity, three factors altered this expectation: an underestimation of the vitality of the pre-Christian Germanic world-view; an overestimation of available instructional resources; and the future religious influence of the Ottonian emperors (962-1002), Henry II (1002-1022), and Henry III (1039-1056) on the papacy and the Church in general. In his study of the Germanic influence on early medieval Christianity, Josef A. Jungmann has concluded that "from the 10th century onwards, the cultural heritage which had accumulated in the Carolingian North, streamed in ever increasing volume into Italy and became the cultural standard in Rome itself," and from there, eventually "became normative for all the West."[2]
In other words, by coming into contact with the Germanic people, Christianity began to culturally morph from the Pauline world-denying perspective -- with a celibate ideal and the emphasis of Christians acting as passive, bullied, suffering pacifist martyrs in imitation of a martyred pacifist Messiah -- into a more Germanic version of Christianity with an emphasis on procreation, folk, family, and the warrior mentality. As Russel writes on page 12, "pre-Christian Germanic religiosity differed fundamentally from early, pre-Constantinian Christianity, ..." In other words, Christianity before Germanic influence and Constantine's conversion was a completely different religion with a more egalitarian, docile, and pacifist view with celibacy and voluntary martyrdom as the norm.
Russel goes on to state:
Chapter 3 establishes the sociohistorical and religious Sitz im Leben [setting in life] of the Germanic encounter with Christianity within the larger context of the encounter of an lndo-European folk religiosity with a non-Indo-European, universalist, salvation religion. lndo-European religiosity is generally characterized herein as "folk religious" and "world-accepting," while Christianity and its Hellenistic and Judaic antecedents are generally characterized as "world-rejecting" religions of universal salvation. ... [compared to] the traditional world-accepting Greek and Roman Indo-European folk religiosity.
In other words, the body-despising worldview based in Platonism and Jewish apocalypticism, which was Pauline Christianity, was essentially replaced with the mentality of the conquering Indo-Europeans: who had a worldview of embracing this world and conquering and reproducing on earth here and now.
On page 14-15, Russel writes:
... Germanic influence also figured strongly in the development of local proprietary churches or Eigenkirchen, chivalry, feudalism, the Crusade ideology, and the cult of relics. ... Chapter 5 provides an evaluation of pre-Christian Germanic religiosity from an Indo-European perspective. After examining the social structure, law codes, and epic literature of the Germanic peoples, it is asserted that for Christianity to have been accepted by the Germanic peoples, it had to be reinterpreted in a primarily heroic and magicoreligious fashion that would appeal to military and agricultural concerns. A general perception of Christianity as primarily a cult dedicated to the most powerful god, however, tended to obscure the soteriological, ethical, and communal dimensions of Christianity which had been preeminent in early Christianity. The anomic socioreligious conditions prevalent in the declining Roman Empire are contrasted with the high level of internal group solidarity which existed among the Germanic peoples during their encounter with Christianity between 376 and 754. The maintenance of this intragroup solidarity through lengthy periods of migration appears primarily due to the operation of the comitatus institution and to strong interlocking kinship and community bonds, as well as to a religiosity that provided political reinforcement.
In other words, early first century Pauline Christianity, with its egalitarian, docile, and communitarian utopianism lacked the robust folk religion of the Indo-Europeans: with its hierarchical structure and heroic mythos. So that in order to survive and grow, Pauline Christianity needed to graft itself onto the Germanic Indo-European Spirit.
As an example of Christian missionaries converting the Germanic people, not through pacifist love, exorcising demons, or dying martys (as the New Testament ethic dictates), but by proving to have more powerful magic and war power, Russel writes on page 15:
In perceiving the centrality of divine power in Germanic religiosity, the missionaries sought to prove that the power of Christ surpassed that of the local deities, as St. Boniface sought to demonstrate when he chopped down an oak tree dedicated to Thor at Geismar in Hesse. Such emphasis on the superior intercessory power of the Christian God in earthly affairs, and particularly military conflicts, appears to have contributed toward a perception of Christianity as a powerful magicoreligious cult, and thus advanced the Germanization of Christianity. Given the substantial inherent disparity between Germanic and Christian worldviews, a missionary policy that encouraged the temporary accommodation of Christianity to a heroic, religiopolitical, magicoreligious, world-accepting Germanic worldview appears to have been developed as a more effective approach than straightforward preaching or coercion. Although the accommodation of the Germanic world-view was originally intended to have been a temporary measure, the general lack of post-baptismal religious instruction, complemented by the vitality of Germanic religiosity, resulted in the Germanization of Christianity.
In other words, "New Testament Christianity" did not survive actually, as its world-rejecting ideals of pacifist celibate martyrs awaiting the soon return of the Messiah, proved wrong as an expectation and an utter failure as a social structure based on egalitarian communal living based on belief in spirit-possession. Pauline Christianity quite frankly would have died out as just another doomsday apocalyptic cult, just like the modern suicide cult Heaven's Gate; but those who had converted to Christianity after 300 AD, evolved the religion culturally into a more Germanic religion; and then reinterpreted the original meaning of the life-denying martyr-centric Pauline scriptures, so that Christianity was a more life-affirming worldview; in order for it to survive and grow as an evolving socio-cultural mythos.
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