Mythology!

[Iceglow]

I love Asgardian (Norse) mythology. Ancient Greece is a treasure trove the likes of which will never be seen again. Celtic myths are fantastic, that being said they're also very contradictory and less well preserved due to the destruction they faced at the hands of the Christians who took over.

[escobert]

Since I come from Vikings of some sorts at one point in time, I am most interested in Norse gods.

[Skyblade]

I like Christian mythology. I enjoyed Paradise Lost despite my professor's seeming attempts to make it as bad as possible to read.

Paradise Lost is not Christian mythology.

I like Norse and Christian myself, chiefly. I'm quite knowledgeable about Greek, Roman, and Egyptian, but don't really like them, and I'm starting to delve into Japanese.

[Ayen]

I'm a fan of Christian mythology too. I was just afraid to put the words Christian and mythology together earlier in fear of getting yelled at by somebody.

[Skyblade]

I'm a fan of Christian mythology too. I was just afraid to put the words Christian and mythology together earlier in fear of getting yelled at by somebody.

Myth - a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.

It's certainly debatable, but the idea of a myth always being untrue has long since fallen out of style. The word's meaning has vastly changed over the years, and I see no real reason to argue with the current usage. It's simple, and conveys the idea easily enough that anyone you are discussing it with will know what you mean.

I like Christian mythology. I enjoyed Paradise Lost despite my professor's seeming attempts to make it as bad as possible to read.

Paradise Lost is not Christian mythology.

It's a fictional story centered around a fictional character from the Bible/Christian mythology. It counts.

It reuses a couple names and otherwise completely ignores the source material. If Paradise Lost counts as Christian Mythology, then Final Fantasy counts as Hindu mythology just for using the name "Shiva", and counts as an extension of Kabbalah for using "Sephiroth".

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Milton at least had Greek and Roman mythological epics in mind when he wrote Paradise Lost, including an invocation to a Muse at the beginning of Book 1. I've honestly only read bits and pieces of Paradise Lost, and I can't remember very much of what I did read. We had a lot of discussions about Paradise Lost and old Christian cycle plays in one of my college English classes that I should try to find some of my notes on, both from class discussions and my own research. Anyways, there are a lot of beliefs with regards to Satan that at least for a time were highly regarded as fact in Christianity that originate from Paradise Lost and some of these cycle plays. Well, if I remember right, they originated in those plays and were expanded upon by Milton. Either way, the epic held true to a lot of beliefs despite its deviations from the Bible.

Long story short, I'd say it would be pretty easy to debate that Paradise Lost should fit into a Christian Mythology regardless of how much it deviates from the Bible. Not that it really matters that much. I didn't find Paradise Lost too terribly interesting from the bits I've read.

[Cuchulainn]

My answer is obvious. In fact it's so obvious I'd be insulting everyone's intelligence by saying it and I've already had too many warning for insulting ppl with fragile sensibilities.

I also like Roman and Greek stuff. And Christian Myths. That fella Jesus. What a story! They should definitely make a film.

[Shorty]

I like Christian mythology. I enjoyed Paradise Lost despite my professor's seeming attempts to make it as bad as possible to read.

Paradise Lost is not Christian mythology.

It's a fictional story centered around a fictional character from the Bible/Christian mythology. It counts.

It reuses a couple names and otherwise completely ignores the source material. If Paradise Lost counts as Christian Mythology, then Final Fantasy counts as Hindu mythology just for using the name "Shiva", and counts as an extension of Kabbalah for using "Sephiroth".

I'd consider that naming a couple of video game characters after gods and having no further relation to the gods' stories is far and away a different thing than fully centering an elaborative story around characters and events that happened in the bible and christian literature. It absolutely directly concerns the source material.

[Spuuky]

It also matters that Paradise Lost actually cares about and intends to extend the Christian mythos, and Final Fantasy does not attempt to do that with Hinduism. I'd also say that things like the Divine Comedy count. I don't see why they wouldn't.

I'd even say that a game like Darksiders is "Christian mythology" in setting or at least inspiration, even though it obviously has very, very little in common with the source material, however strict you want to be with the source material.

[Skyblade]

It also matters that Paradise Lost actually cares about and intends to extend the Christian mythos, and Final Fantasy does not attempt to do that with Hinduism. I'd also say that things like the Divine Comedy count. I don't see why they wouldn't.

I'd even say that a game like Darksiders is "Christian mythology" in setting or at least inspiration, even though it obviously has very, very little in common with the source material, however strict you want to be with the source material.

If that's what the criteria is, I'll agree and accept it. I'd then list Stargate as participating in both Egyptian and Greek mythologies (since they attempt to explain and expand the mythologies), but whatever.

I count Paradise Lost as a Christian mythology fanfiction, rather than a member part of that mythology. It is an excellent piece, judged on its own merits, and only makes a few errors with the beliefs at its core, but it is full of events, struggles, and locales that simply never happened.

If I were to write a book, today, detailing the struggles and adventures of the Norse gods beyond the myths established by the Norse people, would that count as an addition to the mythology? I have seen many such books, and I am quite a fan of several of them, but I never consider them part of the mythology, since they deviate so far from the original material.

I suppose it is a matter of semantics. I'll concede it as a part of the "mythology", but not a part of the "lore" or "history". Will that work?


Mostly, I loathe the piece for the way it massively skewed the perception of the Christian mythology, rather than for its own merits.

[Spuuky]

Well, I certainly wouldn't call it Christian "history."

Stargate doesn't feel right, because I don't feel (from my uninformed position) that they're likely actually taking the mythology seriously, but rather intentionally building a fictional TV show for entertainment. Maybe that isn't so different from Milton, but I guess Milton is long enough ago and culturally significant enough to have passed some mystery threshold in my mind, and Stargate hasn't.

Then again, maybe you can include Stargate if that's how you feel about it, I can live with that.

[Madame Adequate]

Dude Paradise Lost is one of the most influential texts on Christianity since the Bible itself, so unless you are proposing that Milton actually wrote another Testament and was divinely inspired, it's Christian mythology.

My favorite mythology is XIPE TOTEC, OUR LORD THE FLAYED ONE.