There is a pearl of deep wisdom in indigenous traditions. This is because they offer a vast knowledge of what transpired before the current lifestyle. Religion is one of the most significant aspects of the society that has a great connection with the ancient tradition. The current forms of religion can be traced back to various ancient traditions. Religion is also a major influence on critical aspects of society, such as culture, art, law, and philosophy. Its integral role in society has attracted much attention from scholars to identify its roots. Europe is one of the continents that have been embracing religion since the ancient days. This is a factor that has influenced the need to have indigenous religion for the Europeans. Besides, there is a need to understand examples of indigenous European religions and explore the link between animism and the indigenous religion. Lastly, there is a need to review the relationship between indigenous European religion and Christianity.
Indigenous European Religions
Various religious groups dominated Europe in the ancient days. Most notably, Europeans believed in many gods in what was termed as polytheists. Ancient Greek was one of the most significant religions that were adored by ancient Europeans. The ancient Roman religion also had a considerable number of followers. Celtic polytheism and German paganism were also practiced. This is an implication that indigenous European religions were spread across Europe, with each quarter of the population joining their best choices. Despite the existence of many indigenous religions across Europe, Roman religion emerged as one of the most popular religions with immense followers (Ferlat 2019:1-15). One of the most substantial factors that influenced the success of Roman religion was its ability to adopt different elements from various cultures and traditions. It would, therefore, combine them into one multidimensional body of religious beliefs and practices. According to Ferlat (2019), Roman religion believed that there were many gods, and their positions were ranked according to their powers. Thus, having a mighty father and a humble and protective spirit. Therefore, each god was to be worshipped in a specific way, accompanied by sacrifices and prayers. In return, the gods would provide their followers with protection and blessing according to what they had requested.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The information available from different kinds of indigenous European religions establishes the essence of understanding the whole concept of religion. Focusing on why religion was essential to ancient Europeans provides an opportunity to identify how and why religion was vital. The ancient Roman religion stands out to be the religion that had many worshipers across Europe. It entailed praying to the gods, who had different powers and roles to play to their worshipers. Therefore, indigenous European religions form the basis of understanding the connection between religion and its impacts on society.
Animism and Indigenous European Religion
There are relative factors that connect the indigenous European religion and animism. Animism can be identified as the religious belief in creatures, places, and even objects. Animism is founded on the belief that creatures, places, and even objects possess distinct spiritual abilities (Emerick 2019). The spiritual beings provided the needed help that the worshippers would request. Thus, spiritual beings could help or harm their worshippers as they were directly involved in human activities. Animism was evident since the adoption of indigenous European religions. Various practices link animism to indigenous European religion. Exploring the way indigenous Europeans worshipped, animism is deeply embedded in their way of worshipping. For instance, in ancient Roman religion, worshippers believed that there were many gods with each god having their own roles. The ancient Romans worshipped objects and creatures like rivers, trees, skies, and even fields. Indigenous European religion also stressed on events like dreams to predict about the future. Dream images were used as a sign of what would happen next in society. This was achieved by the fact that every image was given its ideal meaning. This is an implication that individuals were keen on various dream images as laid down in their respective religions to get a tangible meaning. This, in return, confirms that animism has had a great link with the indigenous European religion.
The ancient Europeans were ideally impressed with the role of spiritual beings in their religious lives. Emerick (2019) contends that animism presented something unique that, in one way or the other directly linked them with their gods. Thus, the simple belief in the spiritual beings free of natural bodies expanded to facilitate the link between indigenous European religion and animism. Although animism may be seen as a superstition, it had a massive significance in the identification of indigenous European religion with its followers. It acted as the medium to nourish and fulfill their religious desires.
Indigenous European Religion and Modern Christianity
The contemporary Christianity has its roots linked to indigenous European religion. Indigenous Europeans deeply embraced different types of beliefs and practices before Christianity. In most instances, they were referred to as pagans. Just like modern Christianity, indigenous European religion had no unified code of worshipping. For example, the Celtic polytheism was not like a religion in the modern sense as it involved many beliefs and practices. However, much of the practices by the indigenous religions relate to contemporary Christianity. This is marked in what was the purpose of the religion. In both religions, the absolute reason to be identified with a religion is to seek help or protection from God. This is to imply that as modern Christians worship God to fulfill certain requests, so were the indigenous religious groups in Europe. The act of offering sacrifices in modern Christianity can also be traced back to ancient religion in Europe. Most of the indigenous religions in Europe believed that their gods needed sacrifices, just like modern Christianity. Furthermore, modern Christianity has diverse groups that believe in their ways of worship. This is similar to the indigenous religion, where there were several religions with different styles of worship.
Indigenous European religions can be linked to Christianity basing on some essential aspects that both religions share. Looking at their need to worship, ways of worshipping, and different kinds of groups in the religions significantly provide an insight into how they relate. The current scope of the legal systems involves responsibility and accountability as some of the measures of an obedient human being (Barstow 1994:32-37). According to Barstow (1994), the objective of the legal system in ancient religion was to restore harmony. The indigenous European religion too stressed on the need of the society to be responsible and accountable. Therefore, the worshippers were supposed to follow some basic norms of society to appease their gods. The modern Christianity also identifies the legal system as the absolute guidance of the land. Thus, it should be obeyed in addition to the respect of the word of God. Therefore, the current doctrines and rules that make up the legal systems can be linked to the indigenous European religion.
Discussion
The untapped potential of culture became a unifying factor and mobilizing instruments in Europe. Today, the European Union can be described as a beacon of security, human rights, and peace. The European Union has also created a space of democratic debate and the exchange of creative possibilities and openness (Taylor, 2008) . The culture in Europe has been used as an umbrella organization for uniting the political class, cultural networks, stakeholders and organization throughout Europe. The Europeans hold a firm conviction that culture must always be put at the center of decision-making and public debate.
In the late 19 th and 20 th centuries, after religious wars, the European states thought that religion would play a decreasing role in politics. As a result, many EU institutions were built without mechanisms of dealing with religious issues (Taylor, 2008) . Due to the eternal measure being taken by countries such as the United States after the September 9/11 attacks, European institutions have been pushed to consider religious aspects (Nieuwenhuis, 2012) proactively. In Europe, there is no single religious model, which means that each state has developed its own balance when it comes to religion (Nieuwenhuis, 2012) . In Germany, Ireland, and Greece, for instance, God is mentioned in their constitution while in Denmark, the monarch is the sole authority in the evangelical Lutheran church that is supported by the state.
Spirit animals, shamanism, totems, spiritualism, and rainbows have been in existence for centuries. In our modern world, they have existed beyond the realm of exotic cultures, and they continue to take precedence in major decision-making processes. Many decades ago, the Europeans had animistic understandings of how the world worked (Nieuwenhuis, 2012) . They believed in the interdependence of life and the fluidity between the mundane and spirit worlds. Even though there are common themes found in the various ethnic faiths around the world, each faith consists of variations that are specific to the people practicing it.
The discussion on how Christianity relates to other religions is a delicate issue that must be handled with care.
The relationship between Christianity and animism is a topic that should be explored so that conflicts can be minimized, suspicion removed, and any illusion dispelled. Christianity has always clashed with the worldview of animism (Silnović, 2017) . This is because animism is a religion that believes spiritual forces are behind the happenings of any event, and objects of the spiritual world carry some form of spiritual significance. Animism has no distinction between what is observed in both the physical and the spiritual world. In contrast, Christians believe in God and the holy scriptures. Many people fearsome of the beliefs practiced in animism such as magic, sorcery, and witchcraft which frighten people. Even though Christians pray to God, they sometimes experience animistic thinking and practice when they seek help from their animistic gods. In the book of Deuteronomy, the bible forbids animistic practices and beliefs when Christians transform their minds with God’s word (Silnović, 2017) . By reading the scriptures, Christians have nothing to fear when it comes to unseen spirits, as God lives in his people and has given them protection and assurance over superhuman powers. Christianity and Islam are the main religions that have spread throughout the world, but animism is the receding primary belief system that is commonly mixed with other religions.
Conclusion
Summarily, religion as a societal norm has a great history. Indigenous European religion confirms that, indeed, religion started a long time ago. There were several types of religion in ancient Europe, a fact that has been embraced in the contemporary world. Despite having different kinds of gods, indigenous European religions embraced animism in one way or another. This is evident in their beliefs in spiritual beings as their gods. Their belief influenced their need to worship rivers, objects, and even creatures. Indigenous European religions are also relative to modern Christianity. This is apparent in why they worshipped and the act of offering sacrifices. It can, therefore, be concluded that Christianity and indigenous European religions relate to each other in different aspects.
References
Barstow, A. (1995). Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts . New York: HarperOne.
Emeric, C. (2019, January 16). Western man is in need of a religion connected to his roots – ethnic, spiritual, and environmental . Arktos. Retrieved from https://arktos.com/2019/01/16/more-than-meets-the-eye-the-death-and-resurrection-of-european-animism/ .
Ferlat, A. (2019). Rediscovering Old Gaul: Within or Beyond the Nation-State?. Religions , 10 (5), 331. doi: 10.3390/rel10050331
Nieuwenhuis, A. (2012). State and religion, a multidimensional relationship: Some comparative law remarks. International Journal Of Constitutional Law , 10 (1), 153-174. doi: 10.1093/icon/mos001
Silnović, N. (2017). The handbook of religions in ancient Europe: European history of religions. European Review Of History: Revue Européenne D'histoire , 25 (1), 190-192. doi: 10.1080/13507486.2017.1332835
Taylor, B. (2008). Editorial. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture , 2(1). doi: 10.1558/jsrnc.v2i1.5
