Not exact matches
Many scholars, ancient and modern, have
pointed out that such contact with Christianity is unlikely but that, even if it did happen, the Christianity practiced in that part
of the world was so debased that it was indistinguishable from
paganism.
I can not at this
point enter into the discussion
of types
of Diaspora Judaism affected by contact with
paganism; I wish only to record my conviction (1) that Paul's Judaism was not
of the orthodox Palestinian type, which later became normal, and normative; and (2) that early Gentile Christianity, both before Paul and also outside the area
of his influence, was far more substantial than the Book
of Acts and the surviving Pauline letters have led many to assume.
But it also includes
points that Muslims should consider: that the Qur» an may not deny the Crucifixion, as is often thought, or that its harsh condemnations
of the concept
of the «Son
of God» may in fact be targeting Arab
paganism and its carnal deities more than Christianity.
True, this anti-Christian faith is coming into action under different names in different parts
of the world; but the more these alternative versions
of the postwar
paganism insist upon their
points of difference — the more they abuse and attack one another — the more clearly they betray their kinship with one another to the eyes
of the Christian observer.
The second
point in our Christian reply to the pretensions
of the
paganism of today was, you will remember, that, so far as one can find anything new in the twentieth - century
paganism, this new thing is something that has been borrowed by
paganism from Christianity itself.
Another Rabbi said that God had to act fast at this
point, not only to save these people from slavery, but also because his plan for the salvation
of the world, passed through these Hebrew slaves, and if they were left any longer in Egyptthis plan would be beyond repair, since the Hebrews were in danger
of succumbing to the infamous immorality, decadence and
paganism of the Egyptians.