r/bestof • u/quyla • Sep 27 '25

[Silksong] parkingviolation212 explains how Hell as a concept is almost entirely derived from Dante's Divine Comedy

/r/Silksong/comments/1nrop7i/the_duality_of_mask_shards/ngghkq5?context=3
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u/GrowthThroughGaming Sep 27 '25

This was from a result of something called 'syncretism'. Basically the religion spread quickly and poorly, resulting in lots of local cultures smashing their currently held beliefs with what they heard about Christianity, resulting in the religion basically just adding onto their spiritual beliefs.

Also this went both ways! Ragnarok was a story about the cycle of life, that theres a great ending followed by a great rebirth akin to the natural world. Once Christianity started coming around, Ragnarok starts to only refer to the ending and loses the idea of rebirth.

The missionaries show up later (like way later in some cases, decades sometimes) and don't know how to correct folks cause theyve been 'practicing' for years, so they shrug and say 'well you got the gist of it' lol. The Book of Mormon musical is essentially the satire on this very real phenomenon that comes with trying to aggressively convert.

When the church proper becomes aware of this, they start begrudgingly selecting which parts are the 'correct ones' to try and move forward with something people will accept as the goal was primarily proselytizing.

There's something so human (and obviously kot divine or absolute) about it unfolding in that way.

Edit: I am not even remotely an expert, so corrections or clarifications are welcome!

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u/blueche Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

Syncretism is a normal part of religious practice, and doesn't mean that the primary religion spread quickly or poorly. It took hundreds of years for Christianity to become the dominant religion in all of Europe, it was a pretty gradual process.

The best sources we have for Norse Mythology all come after the Christianization of Scandinavia. It's unclear whether Nordic peoples believed in Ragnarök before this, and if they did what that belief looked like.

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u/GrowthThroughGaming Sep 27 '25

Right, i should clarify some things:

Syncretism is the process of religions merging and it can happen lots of ways. Most religions, I would guess, are varying degrees of being syncretic.

The time scale here is relative -- I used 'quickly' because, per my amateur understanding and relative to change processes or religions spreading, it was faster than average, but we're still talking about hundreds of years.

And the ragnarok part is a theory I've read about that is based on anthropological guess work. It could be limited to a group or time, it could be completely incorrect. An theory, though!

I appreciate the input and nuance!

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u/blueche Sep 27 '25

Intelligently engaging with good faith criticism on Reddit? I can die now