moviejunkie23
Where many vikings christian? That is a question some of these articles answer i have researched on the web.
The 700's saw the fierce raiding parties of the Vikings pillaging and plundering much of western Europe. It wasn't long, however, before Christian missionaries began arriving in Scandinavia. Within about 400 years, Christianity had become the dominant religion in Viking lands.
How was this possible? Through what means or patterns of evangelism were they transformed into Christians?
Three main factors form what might be called the strategy for the evangelization of the Viking peoples. This strategy (or perhaps more correctly, "pattern" is similar in some aspects to what happened in the earlier evangelization of the Germanic peoples.
1. The first aspect of the pattern is that in almost all of the Viking lands, "conversion was accomplished as a community affair by a kind of mass movement."1 Mass conversion that had been common in the Germanic or barbarian cultures happened here as well in part because of the tribal makeup of the Viking culture.
2. The second feature of the pattern in which the Vikings were won to Jesus Christ was that in almost all areas "the eventual triumph of Christianity through royal initiative."2 In these cases Christianity was not a grass-roots, popular movement which in the end captured the tribal leadership. Rather "people (were) brought to the faith en masse as the monarch's subjects rather than as individually responsible persons."3 Viking kings sought to ride the crest of the wave. For these rulers, accepting Christianity helped solidify their authority. Almost all of them got the church to create archbishoprics in their domain, bishoprics over which they had some control.
3. The third feature of efforts to evangelize the Vikings was that instruction, baptism, and discipleship training were carried on largely by missionaries from England. The Vikings' repeated invasions of England brought them into close contact with already Christianized people. "Since the English were a subject people, the Scandinavians had nothing to fear from them politically."4 Thus, English missionaries were allowed to move about fairly freely in Scandinavian countries without being looked on with suspicion. As had been true with the barbarians, the religion of the conquered became that of the conqueror. The victor was preached to and baptized by the vanquished.
This third feature of the Viking evangelism pattern is particularly interesting as one compares this period with the later Vasco de Gama period. During the Western colonial period it was usually the dominant colonial powers who furnished the Christian missionaries for subject peoples. The lack of suspicion which the early English missionaries encountered in Viking lands stands in contrast to the political opposition that Western missionaries have often encountered in third-and even second-world countries.
So I thought it would be interesting to add some christian history into the religeon forum concerning vikings.
The 700's saw the fierce raiding parties of the Vikings pillaging and plundering much of western Europe. It wasn't long, however, before Christian missionaries began arriving in Scandinavia. Within about 400 years, Christianity had become the dominant religion in Viking lands.
How was this possible? Through what means or patterns of evangelism were they transformed into Christians?
Three main factors form what might be called the strategy for the evangelization of the Viking peoples. This strategy (or perhaps more correctly, "pattern" is similar in some aspects to what happened in the earlier evangelization of the Germanic peoples.
1. The first aspect of the pattern is that in almost all of the Viking lands, "conversion was accomplished as a community affair by a kind of mass movement."1 Mass conversion that had been common in the Germanic or barbarian cultures happened here as well in part because of the tribal makeup of the Viking culture.
2. The second feature of the pattern in which the Vikings were won to Jesus Christ was that in almost all areas "the eventual triumph of Christianity through royal initiative."2 In these cases Christianity was not a grass-roots, popular movement which in the end captured the tribal leadership. Rather "people (were) brought to the faith en masse as the monarch's subjects rather than as individually responsible persons."3 Viking kings sought to ride the crest of the wave. For these rulers, accepting Christianity helped solidify their authority. Almost all of them got the church to create archbishoprics in their domain, bishoprics over which they had some control.
3. The third feature of efforts to evangelize the Vikings was that instruction, baptism, and discipleship training were carried on largely by missionaries from England. The Vikings' repeated invasions of England brought them into close contact with already Christianized people. "Since the English were a subject people, the Scandinavians had nothing to fear from them politically."4 Thus, English missionaries were allowed to move about fairly freely in Scandinavian countries without being looked on with suspicion. As had been true with the barbarians, the religion of the conquered became that of the conqueror. The victor was preached to and baptized by the vanquished.
This third feature of the Viking evangelism pattern is particularly interesting as one compares this period with the later Vasco de Gama period. During the Western colonial period it was usually the dominant colonial powers who furnished the Christian missionaries for subject peoples. The lack of suspicion which the early English missionaries encountered in Viking lands stands in contrast to the political opposition that Western missionaries have often encountered in third-and even second-world countries.
So I thought it would be interesting to add some christian history into the religeon forum concerning vikings.