Pagan & 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 symbolising in some rude way the redemption and fulfilment 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

[PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN CREEDS: THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING]
[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 SAVIOUR-GOD AND THE VIRGIN-MOTHER]
[XI. RITUAL DANCING]
[XII. THE SEX-TABOO]
[XIII. THE GENESIS OF CHRISTIANITY]
[XIV. THE MEANING OF IT ALL]
[XV. THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES]
[XVI. THE EXODUS OF CHRISTIANITY]
[XVII. CONCLUSION]
[APPENDIX]

PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN CREEDS:
THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING