Art History Journal

The blending of "pagan" in Christians art works and doctrines had both its advantages and disadvantages. The fact that most of the popularity back then was illiterate played an important role in why Christians would depict a mixture of both "pagan" and Christian elements in their works of art. They would use images in order to allow those who couldn't read understand the story and create a greater impact. The fact that Christianity was a new official religion and not everyone agreed with it, they felt the need to add pagan forms in their artwork in order to make it more appealing to those who weren't completely for Christianity. The addition of pagan traits into Christian artwork was done with the hope that those who believed in multiple gods would become more curious about Christianity and their beliefs of there only being one god. I believe that the Christians definitely were using pagan traits to their advantage, they strategized and thought of how to appeal to those who were uncertain about Christianity by using something that was familiar to them. Some of the disadvantages of this combination of pagan elements with Christian ones is that on a sense they were dishonest to themselves. They felt the need to go out and in a sense sell out, by including these pagan traits in order to be accepted by others. This act that was done by the Christians im sure has been questioned and looked down upon and can probably be a reason why several don't agree with Christian ways because they could see this "sell-out" as hypocritical and un-true to themselves and their Chrsitian religion. These are some of the reasons why i believe that combing pagan and Christian elements together can have both its advantages and disadvantages.