it's all about the light.
December 21, 2016 5:32 AM   Subscribe

 
Wow!

I wish you'd shared this yesterday, though.
posted by notyou at 5:52 AM on December 21, 2016


This was an interesting read; thanks. It also reminded of when I got put in detention at school for asking if modern Christianity was an offshoot of older Paganism, during "Any questions?"; the nun who taught us RE (Religious Education O-level) was not happy with that one.
posted by Wordshore at 5:55 AM on December 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


Interesting. Old churches in Europe (as in, Romanesque or Gothic) usually can't do that because they're traditionally oriented with the apse towards the east, as a proxy for Jerusalem.
posted by sukeban at 6:17 AM on December 21, 2016


Nice, and fascinating, thanks for posting!
posted by carter at 7:05 AM on December 21, 2016


Christianity is of course "an offshoot of paganism" in many regards, but this phenomenon is more a reflection of the Roman Catholic church's history of making concessions to indigenous spiritual practices in order to gain converts (in contrast to the traditional Protestant "either/or" approach to conversion, in which traditional gods/goddesses have to be rejected for authentic Christian conversion). In much of Latin America, for example, Christian saints--and Mother Mary--were often seen as stand-ins for a culture's traditional deities. European Catholic priests turned a blind eye to this practice, as long as it got their numbers up.

Older religions have more direct ties to sun worship. Vedic religions (that is to say Hinduism) use fire in a lot of their ceremonies--Agni/Agnihotra--which Hindu scholars usually point to as a stand-in for the Sun, sun-worship being perhaps pretty universal in pre-literate human history.
posted by kozad at 7:18 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


this phenomenon is more a reflection of the Roman Catholic church's history of making concessions to indigenous spiritual practices in order to gain converts

Making concessions? Or appropriating?

I only just recently learned that Americans aren't familiar with the Huron Christmas Carol (sung), which is another cultural artifact along the same lines.

To be fair though, I can't get super worked up about the aspects of colonialism that basically come down to renaming sky fairies. And in the case of the illuminated churches, it's a very cool architectural technique that takes advantage of actual observable phenomena and I'm glad it's being appreciated.
posted by sparklemotion at 8:29 AM on December 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


In much of Latin America, for example, Christian saints--and Mother Mary--were often seen as stand-ins for a culture's traditional deities.

Latin America? You have to be European to be a bit suspicious of all the statues of the Virgin that appear mysteriously in places that used to be sacred springs, not to talk about saints like Brigid, patroness of blacksmiths that just happens to have the same name as Brigid, Celtic goddess of blacksmithing.
posted by sukeban at 8:54 AM on December 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


Way cool!
posted by BlueHorse at 9:27 AM on December 21, 2016


Pdf downloadable - no sign up
Sacrament of the Sun: Eschatological Architecture and Solar Geometry in a California Mission. In Boletín: The Journal of the California Mission Studies Association, Volume 22, Number 1, pp. 87-110. Spring, 2005.
posted by adamvasco at 11:44 AM on December 21, 2016


thanks for posting
posted by theora55 at 1:14 PM on December 21, 2016


Thank for the post. We were doing this in Ireland about 5000 years before it was cool tho
posted by billiebee at 1:58 PM on December 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


What a fascinating article about something that I had never heard about before! I'd really like to visit some of these churches during the active time of their solar event periods. I've loved solar event driven man-made things for a long time. I was utterly fascinated by the Anasazi Sun Dagger for a long time when I was much younger.
posted by hippybear at 3:56 PM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


adamvasco, your pdf link isn't working. I found it here.

The whole concept of Cristo-Helios, Solar Christ, and how they reinforced it with solstice beams of light in the missions is fascinating.
posted by eye of newt at 4:11 PM on December 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


Thanks eye of newt.
I have also found a more easily accessable version in digital commons.
I haven't got around to consuming it yet.
My first question is who was / were the architect(s) of the these missions?
As sukeban points out up thread normal practise was the apse to point towards east.
The missions founder was the Mallorquian Frey Juniper Serra who was a Llullian.
posted by adamvasco at 5:13 PM on December 21, 2016


Thank for the post. We were doing this in Ireland about 5000 years before it was cool tho

Also in Egypt, but who's counting.
posted by sukeban at 1:58 AM on December 22, 2016




> Thank for the post. We were doing this in Ireland about 5000 years before it was cool tho

Previously.
posted by homunculus at 10:54 AM on December 24, 2016


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