Why do churches have... ?

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Why do churches have statues/carvings of Sheela Na Gig, the 'Green Man'and 'Hunky Punks'?

 

I have no idea to what you are referring. What/who are Sheela Na Gig, the "Green Man' and "Hunky Punks"?

 

Sheela's are statues/carvings of women opening their uh 'meat curtains', Green Man is popular in most European and even Indian mythology and Hunky Punks are gargoyles that don't spit out water.

Still what would a Christian church want with such things?

Edit here is a Sheela for you.

 

There are many theories of why they appear on so many churches.

The Sheela Na Gig could be left over from the pagan fertility goddess or it could be some kind of (IMO) perverted warning against lust. The early Christian and medieval 'Fathers' did not like women very much and blamed the evils of the world on them.

 

Gargoyles are to scare away evil. Kind of a primitive idea to hold isn't it??

 

Primitive? Religion? Get out of town!

 

Nah, gargoyles WERE to scare away evil. Now they just look cool.

 

What ever the original reason for gargoyles, Green Men or Sheelas I suspect that moving them from an older church to a new one is precisely for the reason Fel gives.

 

The gargoyles I can understand (see Felnoid's post), but the Green Man is a Celtic spirit of the forest isn't he? As for the Sheela Na Gig, I have no idear. I'd never heard of them before now to be honest with you.

 

I was reading about an idol called Cermand Cestach , that was worshiped in Clogher Cathedral, County Tyrone until the medieval times (the Cathedral still stands BTW) and I thought "How could this be?", until I realized that many churches still contain a lot of pagan influences.

 

Cuchulainn, it is interisting to look at just how much local people added to christianity when it was adopted. I used to hear "happy day of the dead" in the southwest and lived in the deep south and saw some strange things in mid/south LA. My country isn't old enough to match what you can find but even here a lot crept in.

 

many local traditions was added to the early christian church and many places older temples or holy grounds was used for the new christian churches. if you for instance travel in italy and greece you can find a number of churches who have reused old stones from the old temple ruins.

the best i have seen is a italien church where they in the door front have placed a stone with a greek inscription opside down, the inscription clearly states that the temple is a dedication to Apollo.

in Denmark the believe in a spirit of sorts called a Nisse excisted for a long time a long with the church, in the beginning it anoyed the church as they saw it as paganism, later they adopted it as a sort of christmass spirit.

In islam some the "holy" signs as seen in turkeys flag, the star an the moon infact origins from christian and greek mythology.
Byzans sign before christianity was a half-moon which symbolised Artemis, later when christianity came, they added as Star symbolising the star that guided the 3 wise men and the virgin mary (i believe). then when the turks annexed byzans around 1458, the signs was adopted by the growing osmanic empire and spread through most the muslim world.

 

Nude sculptures or paintings are one thing (think Sistine Chapel ceiling, or the way sculptures of angels don't exactly feature the upper part of the robes in perfect order...), but those Sheelas are quite much and I don't think they can be connected with anything Christian in any Christian way.

 

This is priceless! I wonder how much more is out there. I had heard/read a lot of stone stealing was going on and talk about poetic justice.

 

Really old European churches have a lot of odd statuary. But some new American ones do, too. The National Cathedral in Washington DC has a Darth Vader gargoyle.

 

revmaf, you have got to be kidding!

 

No, I'm not kidding at all. Seen pictures, also talked to eyewitness. They're always adding stuff to the National Cathedral.

EDIT: in fact just went to their website and found this address:
http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/discover/darth.shtml

about the gargoyle. Honest.

 

revmaf, I would like to hear someone trying to explain that gargoyle a few thousand years from now when it is dug up.

 

Old One, I suppose it's the same as the explanation for Sheela Na Gig and the Green Man: churches are built by people embedded in a culture beyond the church, and they express that culture in how they build and decorate the church.

OTOH one wonders if Darth Vader will be self-explanatory and they'll be puzzled by the crucifixes.

[ January 20, 2007, 03:15: Message edited by: revmaf ]

 

My church has no such thing. Hence I have no idea what you're talking about...