Blending Pagan and Christian Elements

Since Christianity was a new religion and there were not a lot of followers, the Christians felt they needed to add a few pagan traits into the artwork and doctrine to make it more appealing for Christians. Also since there were a lot of areas that Christianity was looked down upon, they felt that this would help them conceal some of the Christian traits they were trying to express. Another thought, was that pagan artwork is colorful and vibrant and the Christian’s wanted their artwork to be just as appealing, so they added pagan traits to their artwork also to make it more vibrate and rich. Most of the artwork and doctrine had traces of Christianity, Roman and Pagan traits in them all combined together. This combined different cultures in unity working as one. Maybe they hoped by doing this that all cultures could have unity with each other. Even though Christianity was taking over the land, most areas tried to keep the artistic traditions alive which is obvious in Scandinavia when they kept the Viking artistic traditions. Animals and spirals are seen in artwork, on doors and even in books. One advantage of this combining pagan and Christian art is that it might give pagans a sense of comfort that they are accepted in the Christian world and will not be looked down upon and not asked to change their ways. A disadvantage of this is that paganism is not accepted in the Christian faith and that pagans would have to completely change their faith if they went to Christianity.