Were There Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe?

Were There Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe? - Ronald Hutton

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5 ай бұрын

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This lecture considers a set of superhuman female figures found in medieval and early modern European cultures- Mother Nature, the roving nocturnal lady often called Herodias, the British fairy queen, and the Gaelic Cailleach. None seem to be surviving ancient deities, and yet there is nothing Christian about any of them either. It is suggested that they force us to reconsider our own existing terminology when writing the religious history of Europe.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 8 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Ronald is Gresham Professor of Divinity.
He is also Professor of History at the University of Bristol.
www.gresham.ac.uk/speakers/pr...
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/p...
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Пікірлер: 84

@ladyjusticesusan 5 ай бұрын

Dr. Hutton is a true treasure. I can’t get enough of him. Thank you with all my heart for posting these lectures. I would otherwise have zero opportunity to see him. (From sunny Florida, USA.)

@BaldingClamydia 2 ай бұрын

Fellow Floridian here with the same sentiment!

@lynpugs Ай бұрын

I'm surprised they aren't banned in Florida.

@BaldingClamydia Ай бұрын

@@lynpugs it's only a matter of time

@nardo218 Ай бұрын

thank you so much for posting these. I am looking to study in grad school exactly this work so it's extremely valuable to me to hear these lectures from a leader in the field. Thanks so much to Dr. Hutton for being so kind and generous with his time and so open with his research!

@KarlKarsnark 5 ай бұрын

Always a treat to hear a lecture from Dr. Hutton.

@jamiegallier2106 19 күн бұрын

These lecture videos are much appreciated. ❤

@tonyevans9999 5 ай бұрын

When you know it's Hutton by the title alone, fascinating insights incoming!

@darlebalfoort8705 5 күн бұрын

Having read some of these works, I find his comments quiet salient. Excellent lecture.

@BaldingClamydia 2 ай бұрын

Oh, I'm a little late to this one, but if Prof Hutton is the lecturer, I have to watch :D

@authormichellefranklin 5 ай бұрын

Always a treat to see Prof. Ronald Hutton!

@user-fh6ov3wl4h 6 күн бұрын

Would love to hear him examine st Bridget in this context

@civilengineer3349 5 ай бұрын

I love Ronald

@KotyAtamanshiGB 5 ай бұрын

Everybody loves Ronald

@TheStoryCrow Ай бұрын

@@KotyAtamanshiGBI came here to write that.

@matimus100 28 күн бұрын

Congratulations on being in love with another man Thanks for letting everyone know on KZfaq

@civilengineer3349 28 күн бұрын

@@matimus100 You should know it too

@LightBeing369 5 күн бұрын

✌🏼Indeed, what a brilliant mind. Could listen to this amazing man all day

@johnmanno2052 19 күн бұрын

This guy's AMAZING!! Always a brilliant lecture.

@andrewstehlik3917 2 ай бұрын

Well, by the time Leviathan got to the book of Job it was quite old chap! What we have in those chapters of the book of Job is extensive quotation and gentle reworking of the Ancient Near East cosmology. And Leviathan had its predecessor in monster Litan - for instance in Ugaritic mythology.

@geraldinehughes4490 4 ай бұрын

Stellar, I appreciate you Professor Hutton. You made my day going forward into old age. You are a dear gentleman, thank you, Geraldine

@pendragon_cave1405 5 ай бұрын

Love his work and really looking forward to where his interests and research take him, especially on the rise of spiritual, non christian female figures of power within the relatively new (to the UK) patriarchal christian religion Also, what a legend for being able to remove his jacket, continue talking, and manage the microphone with barely missing a beat

@matimus100 28 күн бұрын

You love really easy we noticed regularly

@andyourlittledog 5 ай бұрын

What a treat it is to see Dr Hutton

@faithlesshound5621 2 ай бұрын

One conclusion I took away is that the construction of goddesses, or figures akin to them (theogony), had not ceased in the middle ages. These new figures in peoples minds were not simply survivals of earlier beliefs, but may have derived from fresh creations by storytellers. It's like how some kinds of folk music have been shown to have grown out of artistic compositions from a different time and place. In our own time, we can pin down exactly who wrote stories about fictional characters like Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter and when they were published. For creations of earlier times we don't know who first made up the story, since what we have is like several generations later of fanfiction, where only what tickles people's fancy or resonates with them survives the retelling. Carl Jung and Sir James Frazer suggested that there are patterns that recur in what we make up. That may account for the similarities to earlier religious beliefs, rather than their "underground" continuance.

@jonathaneffemey944 29 күн бұрын

Thanks for posting.

@vladimirp2674 5 ай бұрын

Prof. Hutton is a wiseacre. Such a harmonized and profount thread. We a gonna to learn much from him.

@Goldlion973 5 ай бұрын

Classifying customs as relics of past beliefs and ritual. Yes! Once wrote a paper on 80s Punk rock as a cult of Loki who in myth was chained beneath the earth, thrashing as he is spat upon by a snake. Ditto Hip hop as a cult of the deity Eshu the trickster and Pomba Gira, his wife.

@AnnaSibirskaja 5 ай бұрын

Amazing, thank you ❤

@Istehomo 5 ай бұрын

These lectures by Ronald Hutton have been absolutely fantastic.

@janinebean4276 27 күн бұрын

It’s also possible that the churchmen chronically underestimated women and thought women were silly, so didn’t take their traditions seriously

@christopherhamilton3621 25 күн бұрын

Possible… indeed! 😂

@amanitamuscaria7500 Ай бұрын

excellent. Thank you.

@VEDATOR_official 5 ай бұрын

Fascinating

@ramuz-ff3cf 2 ай бұрын

salud dr. hutton dame mas por favor mas

@dafyddthomas6897 Ай бұрын

By mediaeval times, all Classical Paganism had died out. Therefore it was necessary to build a Paganism fit for that society.

@dorothyjones8937 Ай бұрын

Just want to say thank you. I am a devoted fan.

@user-rg9yz5ou4y 5 ай бұрын

Why don't you mention Spenser's "The Fairie Queen," the literary classic that most celebrates this being, whom Spenser identified with Elizabeth I?

@jarrettperdue3328 8 күн бұрын

Was curious about that too

@KernowekTim Ай бұрын

Professor Hutton's detractors are entitled to their collective of contrary views. Without contradiction we would never progress. They also share other common denominators; they do not command the universal respect that Professor Hutton has earned, nor will they probably ever be elevated to the post of a living British and Irish National Historical Treasure; in my opinion.

@NatrixianNature 2 ай бұрын

This is a brilliant and fascinating lecture. I do wish they had mic’d professor mouth-sounds differently though.

@esthermarygold-lowe4403 Ай бұрын

Also, read the books of the apocrypha. There is a divine feminine. The mother/father.

@curtiswfranks 5 ай бұрын

I love Dr. Hutton!

@matimus100 28 күн бұрын

When did you first discover you were in love?

@curtiswfranks 28 күн бұрын

@@matimus100: Maybe a year or two ago, hahaha!

@mischiefisaspeil 7 күн бұрын

I believe it’s Nerthus the lost earth goddess of the Germanic tribes. She is documented by Tacitus. The great mother existed just wasn’t allowed to be seen by the male dominated religions. But she led the wild hunt prior to Odin. Iduna is the Persephone of Nordic myths.

@janinebean4276 27 күн бұрын

Women need figures to look up to and empathize with as well, and Christianity is famously patriarchal. It makes sense that women created their own figures

@ramuz-ff3cf 2 ай бұрын

Verdadero mucho gracias

@soldiers3-The-Ancient-Ones Ай бұрын

26 min 30 seconds... correction ... they did not stay static .. sometime they do travel with her ... other times you can use the Astral... but mainly she will just vist like you said ... then there seems to be variables of choices .. 🤔 to Continue or ... progression will wait and restart ... in Saxons and Scandinavian terms its a spiritual initiation where the rules are not clearly written in the books but must be tracked adjusted and applied doing so cleanses ... the individual along there way internally .. so it seems from my experiences and studies . 😊 Thanks for the fantastic lecture ❤ and making it available.

@curtiswfranks 28 күн бұрын

I know that this is unrelated to your main point, but what do all of the "..."s mean?

@soldiers3-The-Ancient-Ones 27 күн бұрын

@@curtiswfranks just emphasizing there is more details or examples that could be included.

@wyattrussell7496 Ай бұрын

The exile of the Egyptian princess Scotia

@jarrettperdue3328 8 күн бұрын

I feel like I learned as much about sweaty, preoccupied, male scholars as I did about the overt subject matter 😁

@yensid4294 5 ай бұрын

❤

@user-rg9yz5ou4y 5 ай бұрын

There is overwhelming evidence that some elements of pre-Christian culture survived the triumph of the Christian faith. Most notably, the preservation of the writings of numerous Greek and Roman authors. Even more so, the widespread view of Christian scholars that Aristotle, a pre-Christian philosopher, was the ultimate authority about scientific questions, logic, and many other matters that interested medieval and Renaissance scholars. There was also some adoption of pre-Christian popular culture and pre-Christian folk practices. For example, numerous wells that in pre-Christian Ireland that had been considered holy places, appropriate sites for meditation and prayer in pre-Christian times, continued to be considered holy places, fitting sites for meditation and prayer, in Christian times. (Take for example, Singh's play The Well of the Saints, which focuses on these traditional Irish beliefs). However, very few if any of these survivals of pre-Christian civilization were incompatible with Christian doctrine, and they did not pose any sort of threat to Christianity as the dominant faith.

@speedwagon1824 4 ай бұрын

Why did you stop putting names on the thumbnails?

@ramuz-ff3cf 2 ай бұрын

Cerdadero mucho gracias

@16252 5 ай бұрын

cool

@imadethismistake Ай бұрын

i could listen to him all day

@justinswingle4714 5 ай бұрын

well, i know there are still pagen goddesses in Los Angeles!

@lisamomon6793 7 күн бұрын

Sure went underground

@karljosephburrows8482 Ай бұрын

Macbeth's witches

@francisfischer7620 5 ай бұрын

Heavens, what do you think Mary was?!!

@molochi 5 ай бұрын

Excluding mention of Freya/Freyja seemed odd and pointed. Especially with her association to the Valkyrie.

@KerilynDesiree 23 күн бұрын

Usa is so sad. What a displaced people with no root anymore.

@SimonORorke 5 ай бұрын

Please stop the ads that have suddenly started appearing top left in Gresham videos. They are very distracting, as are the repeated exhortations that I subscribe etc.

@peterharris8471 Ай бұрын

Ah, Dr Hutton, the very antithesis of Dr Dawkins. Both fill my desire for big words in an British accent.

@Johnnycdrums 5 ай бұрын

Heresy yes. Paganism? Of course, and this is well known.

@JJONNYREPP 5 ай бұрын

Were There Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe? isn't that what some woman suggested many years ago - maybe she partook of Gresham college during her teen angst years...and that these paganistic rites are just built upon, redefined and recast with another face or persona at it's centre.....? roman catholicism is rife with it's martyrs - and seems somewhat blood thirsty... p.s i wonder if you will end with some reference to martyrdom or sacrificial rites with this lecture...?

@user-un8tv1pp8m 5 ай бұрын

Early christianity appropriated pagan traditions wherever possible. Even rather basic things like the christmas date, easter spring celebrations, autumn celebrations of the dead, holy springs ect have very clear pagan precursors and where added to catholic dogma in the times the religion was new in the areas it spread to. Now the neopagan feminist movements did overstate that stuff a lot and invented parts outright, but at its core they were not wholly wrong.

@Wotsitorlabart 5 ай бұрын

@@user-un8tv1pp8m The setting of Christmas Day on 25th of December did not coincide directly with a pagan festival. There is little evidence that there were pagan early spring celebrations (May being the month for such festivities). But in any case the timing of Easter was fixed by Scripture as the trial and execution of Christ took place during the Jewish Passover - ie early Spring. Despite popular belief All Hallows Eve (Halloween) and the Christian festivals of All Saints and All Souls that follow were not celebrated on November 1st and 2nd to appropriate the pagan Irish festival of Samhain. Rome had very early decreed that May 13th be the day to celebrate All Saints but by 800 the English and German churches had begun to celebrate on 1st November (perhaps the gloomy northern season suited the sombre nature of the festival rather better than a sunny May). As Samhain was not found in either England or Germany there was clearly no ulterior motive behind this. And to to reinforce that point the Irish Church actually celebrated All Saints Day on 20th April. It clearly felt no threat from the pagan festival.

@ArmyJames 5 ай бұрын

What is like to know is: Were there pagans before there were humans?

@The_Letter_J6 27 күн бұрын

Seems like he's conflating paganism with Christianity, reducing the latter to a mere reworking of "more ancient literature." This is utter rubbish and nonsensical to any lover of the truth, which can only be found in the KJV Bible.

@YAHUAHThetrueMessiah 15 күн бұрын

You are a Fruit LOOP!!!

@JD-qh3sd 3 ай бұрын

The rhythm and tone of this speaker is painful to listen to. Even if one is going to simply read a scripted presentation word-for-word, there are ways to do it better than this.

@jeffreybrannen9465 3 ай бұрын

The very definition of “wet” speaking. If I put the volume very low and put the phone far enough away, I can avoid the revolting noises his voice makes. The material is interesting enough to get through the terrible speaking. It’s like listening to someone talking with Kraft macaroni and cheese in his mouth for over an hour

@faithlesshound5621 2 ай бұрын

I must be grateful for my poor hearing then, for I was in no way incommoded by any of the noises you perceived. Just as I am able to sleep well at night without feeling that there is a pea under my mattress.

@jarrettperdue3328 8 күн бұрын

The Empire Strikes Back; Han cuts open the dead taun-taun ....