How do Christian folk cope knowing that their family has been Christian for about 1500 years, but for milenia prior your family worshipped other gods
…and got along just fine
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ArishMell · 70-79, M
It would make absolutely no difference so would hardly matter to me if they did, even if I were a practicing Christian. (My background is nominally Anglican.)
Five hundred years, perhaps, but probably not much further.
Christianity as a distinct religion is about 1700 years old; and if not for the Romans' conversion, would probably stayed as a minor Jewish sect.
The chances of anyone being able to trace his or her family back 1000 years are pretty slim to say the least, and 1500, I'd suggest impossible as being long before any formal records, let alone ones surviving this long!
The end of the Roman Empire was followed by considerable flux in Europe, as assorted invasions and migrations from elsewhere came across the land. This was long called "The Dark Ages" but archaeologists and historians are now understanding the period better, and treating it with more respect.
Part of Spain was Islamic for a time. The Norse and Saxons, Gaels and Celts were "pagans" who later became Christian. Traces of Saxon architecture still remain in some of the oldest churches in England at least. Celtic art influenced early-Mediaeval Christian works such as architectural decoration and the beautiful, hand-copied Bibles and psalters of the time.
So most of we of any European descent are a right mongrel lot if we go back far enough, with our distant ancestors from any of many cultures with their own pre-Christian religions.
No way of knowing, even with those spurious DNA "ancestry" tests that are purely biological, not historical or cultural.
So it is an intriguing question, but not serious.
Five hundred years, perhaps, but probably not much further.
Christianity as a distinct religion is about 1700 years old; and if not for the Romans' conversion, would probably stayed as a minor Jewish sect.
The chances of anyone being able to trace his or her family back 1000 years are pretty slim to say the least, and 1500, I'd suggest impossible as being long before any formal records, let alone ones surviving this long!
The end of the Roman Empire was followed by considerable flux in Europe, as assorted invasions and migrations from elsewhere came across the land. This was long called "The Dark Ages" but archaeologists and historians are now understanding the period better, and treating it with more respect.
Part of Spain was Islamic for a time. The Norse and Saxons, Gaels and Celts were "pagans" who later became Christian. Traces of Saxon architecture still remain in some of the oldest churches in England at least. Celtic art influenced early-Mediaeval Christian works such as architectural decoration and the beautiful, hand-copied Bibles and psalters of the time.
So most of we of any European descent are a right mongrel lot if we go back far enough, with our distant ancestors from any of many cultures with their own pre-Christian religions.
No way of knowing, even with those spurious DNA "ancestry" tests that are purely biological, not historical or cultural.
So it is an intriguing question, but not serious.