Original scientific paper
Becoming Christian as a Process. Introductory Notes to the Scientific Conference Pag at the Dawn of Croatian Christianity Held at the University of Zadar (Zadar – Pag, 26-28.9.2008.)
Vitomir Belaj
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, 10000 Zagreb, Ivana Lucica 3, Croatia
Abstract
The process if Christianization is usually interpreted as a process lasting for several centuries and not as a one-time ritual act. In order to understand that process, we have to be familiar with the systems of pagan belief which was to be eradicated by Christianity. Starting from the recent research (since 1996, Pleterski and Belaj), the article discusses the arrival of pagan Slavs and the introduction of their gods and mythology into the newly conquered territory and its consecration. The landscape was consecrated by placing the main gods on three spatial points, which were strictly determined, which presented an imitation of mythical drama on the order of the world (the myth was inscribed into the landscape). After Christianization, churches were build on pagan sacred points which, through their link with the pagan objects, sustained the continuity of pagan sacred landscape structures.
Keywords
Christianization; Slavs; conquering territory
Hrčak ID:
45112
URI
Publication date:
18.12.2009.
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