I'm still a bit troubled by that similarity, but it is, as you said, a masterful counterfeit, just like the Ishthat thing.
Odin may have hung from a tree, but even the story says that he did this for his own gain, not as a freely given sacrifice
From wikipeda
In Rúnatal, a section of the Hávamál, Odin is attributed with discovering the runes. In a sacrifice to himself, the highest of the gods, he was hung from the world tree Yggdrasil for nine days and nights, pierced by his own spear, in order to learn the wisdom that would give him power in the nine worlds.The counterfeit forgery is diabolical -- well it is from the devil.
Lewis suggests that a lot of the Nordic religion was informed by Xty. The idea of Ragnarok, the Nordic “Dies Irae” is possibly borrowed from us.
I think Justin Martyr has it right. We are made for God. Just by contemplating ourselves we will come up with some, even many, misshapen half-truths. Paganism evidently reeks with myths of the dying Lord of Life.
So I am not greatly perturbed by similarities between “us” and “them”. Anyone who farms or fights, indeed, who has parents and children, will be dealing all the time with the mysteries of life and death. But in our Lord and His Gospel these are disclosed in a way which leads to freedom/responsibility, love and joy.
Except, of course, on the Religion Forum ...
:-)
> The counterfeit forgery is diabolical — well it is from the devil.
As are the divisions among us, my brother.
The Church Fathers were not bothered by the similarities, because they (rightly) saw that everything, all natural religion, was a preparation for the coming of the Truth, that is, Jesus Christ.
One of the reasons the Church was able to Christianize pagan celebrations such as solstice and equinox celebrations was that it was felt that people who practiced these things had a dim vision of the truth as much as it can be perceived from nature (such things as life, light, rebirth, etc.) and needed to have the true nature of God revealed to them.
This was true of the early missionaries in the US. They Christianized certain Indian feasts by finding in them something that they regarded as a precursor of faith and then explaining the truth to the Indians. This is NOT syncretism (and in fact, the Inquisition put syncretists to death - it was regarded as a very serious heresy) but was a way of preaching to the gentiles.
If you think that man is made for God, and made for God’s revelation in Christ, and made for salvation, then it is easier to understand these things. The people that walked in darkness...