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SYNCRETISM (Gr. o'vyKprlrurw51, from ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 293 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SYNCRETISM (Gr. o'vyKprlrurw51, from aim and Kep&vvv,uc, mingle or blend, or, according to See also:Plutarch, from en, and Kprlri'ecv, to combine against a See also:common enemy after the manner of the cities of See also:Crete) , the See also:act or See also:system of blending, combining or reconciling inharmonious elements. The See also:term is used technically in politics, as by Plutarch, of those who agree to forget dissensions and to unite in the See also:face of common danger, as the Cretans were said to have done; in See also:philosophy, of the efforts of See also:Cardinal See also:Bessarion and others in the 16th See also:century to reconcile the philosophies of See also:Plato and See also:Aristotle; and in See also:theology, of a See also:plan to harmonize the hostile factions of the See also:Church in the 17th century, advocated by Georg See also:Calixtus, a Lutheran See also:professor of theology at Helmstadt. Its most frequent use, however, is in connexion with the religious development of antiquity, when it denotes the tendency, especially prominent from the 2nd to the 4th centuries of the See also:Christian era, to simplify and unify the various See also:pagan religions. During this See also:period, as a result of the intimate knowledge of the See also:world's religions made possible by the gathering of every known cult of importance into the religious system of the See also:Roman See also:Empire, belief in the identity of many deities which resembled each other, and indeed in the essential identity of all, received a See also:special impulse. Not only were various forms of the same deity, such as, for example, See also:Jupiter Capitolinus and Jupiter Latiaris, recognized as being really the same under different aspects, but even the gods of different nations were seen to be manifestations of a single See also:great being. Roman Jupiter, See also:Greek See also:Zeus, See also:Persian See also:Mithras and Phrygian See also:Attis were one. The Great See also:Mother, See also:Isis, See also:Ceres, See also:Demeter, Ops, See also:Rhea, Tellus, were the same great mother deity under different masks (see GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS). See also:Venus and See also:Cupid, See also:Aphrodite and See also:Adonis, the Great Mother and Attis, See also:Astarte and See also:Baal, Demeter and See also:Dionysus, Isis and See also:Serapis, were essentially the same pair. Syncretism even went so far as to blend the deities of paganism and See also:Christianity. See also:Christ was compared with Attis and Mithras, Isis with the Virgin See also:Mary, &c. Isis, perhaps more than any other deity, came to be regarded as the great maternal goddess of the universe whose essence was worshipped under many different names. This fact, with the spirit of syncretism in See also:general, is well illustrated by See also:Apuleius (Metamorph. xi.

2 and 5). See also:

Lucius invokes Isis: " See also:Queen of See also:Heaven, whether See also:thou See also:art the genial Ceres, the See also:prime See also:parent of fruits, who, joyous at the See also:discovery of thy daughter, didst banish the See also:savage nutriment of the See also:ancient See also:acorn, and, pointing out a better See also:food, dost now till the Eleusinian See also:soil; or whether thou art See also:celestial Venus, who, in the first origin of things, didst ' See also:Apollinaris Sidonius uses the pure Latin term concellus. See also:associate the different sexes, through the creation of mutual love, and having propagated an eternal offspring in the human See also:race, art now worshipped in the See also:sea-girt See also:shrine of See also:Paphos; or whether thou art the See also:sister of See also:Phoebus, who, by relieving the pangs of See also:women in travail by soothing remedies, hast brought into the world multitudes so innumerable, and art now venerated in the far-famed shrines of See also:Ephesus; or whether thou art See also:Proserpine, terrific with midnight howlings . . . by whatever name, by whatever ceremonies, and under whatever See also:form it is lawful to invoke thee; do thou graciously, &c. " The goddess replies: " Behold me . . . I, who am Nature, the parent of all things, the See also:mistress of all the elements, the primordial offspring of See also:time, the supreme among divinities, the queen of departed See also:spirits, the first of the celestials, and the See also:uniform m'nifestation of the gods and goddesses; who govern by my nod the luminous heights of heaven, the salubrious breezes of the ocean, and the anguished silent realms of the shades below; whose one See also:sole divinity the whole See also:orb of the See also:earth venerates under a manifold form, with different See also:rites, and under a variety of appellations. Hence the Phrygians, that primeval race, See also:call me Pessinuntica, the Mother of the Gods; the See also:Aborigines of See also:Attica, Cecropian See also:Minerva; the Cyprians, in their sea-girt isle, Paphian Venus; the arrow-bearing Cretans, See also:Diana Dictynna; the three-tongued Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine; and the Eleusinians, the ancient goddess Ceres. Some call me See also:Juno, others See also:Bellona, others See also:Hecate, others Rhamnusia. But those who are illumined by the earliest rays of that divinity, the See also:Sun, when he rises, the Aethopians, the Arii, and the Egyptians, so skilled in ancient learning, worshipping me with ceremonies quite appropriate, call me by my true name, Queen Isis. Behold, then, &c. ('Trans.

See also:

Bohn's See also:Lib.). Naturally, the See also:influence of Greek philosophy was very pronounced in the growth of syncretism. Plutarch and See also:Maximus of See also:Tyre affirmed that the gods of the different nations were only different aspects of the same deity, a supreme intelligence and See also:providence which ruled the world. The Neoplatonists, how-ever, were the first school to formulate the underlying philosophy of syncretism: " There is only one real See also:God, the divine, and the subordinate deities are nothing else than abstractions personified, or celestial bodies with spirits; the traditional gods are only demons, that is, being intermediate between God and See also:man .. . All, like every other created being, are emanations from the See also:absolute God " (See also:Jean See also:Reville, La See also:Religion (I See also:Rome sous See also:les Severes). Care must be taken, however, not to See also:place too much emphasis upon syncretism as a conscious system. The See also:movement which it represented was not new in the end century A.D. The See also:identification of Latin with See also:Etruscan gods in the earliest days of Rome, and then of Greek with See also:Italian, and finally of See also:Oriental with the Graeco-Roman, were all alike syncretistic movements, though not all conscious and reasoned. The ideal of the common See also:people, who were unreflecting, as well as of philosophers who reflected, was " to grasp the religious verity, one and See also:constant, under the multiplex forms with which See also:legend and tradition had enveloped it " (Reville). The See also:advent of Greek philosophy only hastened the movement by conscious and systematic effort. Syncretic, being a movement toward monotheism, was the converse of the tendency, so prominent in the See also:early See also:history of Rome, to increase the number of deities by worshipping the same god under special aspects according to special activities. In the hands of the Neoplatonists it was instrumental in retarding somewhat the fall of paganism for the time, but in the end contributed to the success of Christianity by familiarizing men with the belief in one supreme deity.

The See also:

triumph of Christianity itself represented a result of syncretism, the Church being a blending of the beliefs and practices of both the new and old religions. See Jean Reville, op. cit., especially pages 104-127, 159-174, 284-295. For other examples of syncretism, cf. that of See also:Buddhism Zoroastrianism in the See also:state religion of the Indo-Scythian See also:king-, dorn of See also:Kanishka (see See also:PERSIA: Ancient History, vii. ; The See also:Parthian Empire, § 2); see articles on almost all the religions of the See also:East, e.g. MITHRAS; ZOROASTER. (G.

End of Article: SYNCRETISM (Gr. o'vyKprlrurw51, from aim and Kep&vvv,uc, mingle or blend, or, according to Plutarch, from en, and Kprlri'ecv, to combine against a common enemy after the manner of the cities of Crete)

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