The blending of "pagan" and Christian elements in art and doctrine.

The Christian faith has a strong history of blending “pagan” and Christian elements in their art and sometimes, doctrine. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach to art and theology?

The Christian faith has adopted many “pagan” elements from their art and their doctrine, I think that this both benefits and at times may also be a disfavor. One thing that the “pagan” culture offered to the Christian faith was many ideas about art and architecture itself. If you look back in time to all the beautiful and aspiring art work that the “pagans” put out you would see work such as the great temples in Greece and Rome, and many more ideas about art and architecture. These ideas would later be used in the churches and the culture of the Christian faith. The Christian faith took many architecture ideas from the “pagans” such as arches and columns and in a way the Christian faith began to make their churches look like the temples the “pagans” once had. However I think that with the great ideas about art came a kind of bad conation, for example many Christians were not fond of pagans to say the least, this made it difficult for the Christians when they found that so many of their ideas such as architecture and some of their Christian holidays were not their ideas but in actuality they were the “pagans”. Although I feel that having pagan elements in the Christian theology may sometimes send out a confusing message about the Christian faith I also think that in some way the “pagan” art when introduced into the Christian faith seemed to keep the “pagan” artistic ideas alive and in a way I think it kept the techniques of the art growing.