Palestinian priests share messages of hope and resistance as they celebrate a scaled-down Christmas in Jesus' birthplace
  • expr
    3·
    17 hours ago

    It’s far from cut and dry, and there are multiple schools of thought and conflicting interpretations. Steven Hijmans is a revisionist. Traditionally, it’s indeed believed that it was originally a pagan holiday in celebration of Sol Invictus.

    Steven Hijmans presents an alternative interpretation of the various texts that challenges this understanding. He may or may not be correct, but nevertheless, one should not assume that his views reflect a consensus among historians.

    • bricklove@midwest.socialEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      Thank you for engaging with the sources I was providing and not dismissing them outright. I was in the Christmas is pagan camp for a while and found the idea appealing because I dislike how Christianity homogenized everything and stomped out a bunch of unique cultures that we’ll likely never know about.

      Then I started seeing some experts in the field trying to dispel the idea and I started to have doubts. Now I think Christmas was created independently and then it absorbed local customs as Christianity spread (that’s just my history enthusiast opinion though).