Paganism in Christian Art

If an American sports team wants to recruit a ball player from China to play in the United States they have to speak the language of the Chinese. They can’t expect to go over speaking English with American social norms and think they are going to be able to persuade them to come play for America. The Chinese player is not going to be interested if they do not understand what you are saying. Plus what is a social norm here in America may be offensive to the Chinese culture

I say that to say this, a religion is in many ways is like a recruiter. That religion is constantly try to get more members. They want to keep their current member faithful and they also want to try and influence those of other religions to join their faith.
So if I’m a Christian trying to recruit pagans to join my religion do you think I am going to try and speak the language of the pagans? You bet I am. It’s like the old saying, “You can attract more bees with honey than vinegar.” So I would want to put out the welcome mat and invite pagans to learn more about my religion. Therefore I would need to have some of their influence in my art and doctrines. It is like in the movie Avatar when the humans made themselves look like the local natives. They were trying to win the hearts and mind of the indigenes. So they began to look like them and act like them and before long they started to try and play an influence on their culture. They set up school to teach them the English language and the American social norms.
I believe this is the same concept that the Christians used when they began blending pagan and Christian elements in their art and doctrines. The only bad thing about this attempt is it could offend those who are currently christens and want nothing to do with the pagans. I’m sure it would offend many Christians today if people started to blend Christian art with let’s say Muslim art. There would probably be several that would not be affected but some would find it offensive. Along with christens being offend perhaps the pagans would be offended too. Religion is a touchy subject. People don’t like to see change and this blending of paganism and Christianity was a bold move.