Christianity bans pork
- Thread starter Goldarmy
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if it was actually followed, it would have a negative impact on agriculture in Europe. Pigs are pretty useful in a medieval economy, since they can feed themselves if needed (they were often set loose to forage in woods, IIRC), and they are very prolific; cattle and sheep have mostly one young per birth (sometimes two), while pigs have a lot more. Plus, pigs can also be fed on a lot of agricultural byproducts, which means a farm yields more food per acre. Pigs never seemed to be all that vital in the Middle East and Africa, but I find it doubtful that Europeans would be all that happy about it; as someone else said, if there is a Protestant/Lutheran revolution in this world, one of it's central creeds would be the allowing of eating pork...
Patently untrue. Until the modern age, nobody fed pigs stuff that could be fed to people.
In forested areas, pigs were sent to forage for acorns, beechnuts, hazelnuts etc. In non-forested areas, pigs were fed vegetable discards (rinds, hulls, stems etc.). In very poor areas, pigs were fed shit.
Given that the old testiment is just as true as the new, from a theological PoV, then we're allready sinners ... either by eating Pigs, eating Shellfish, wearing expensive items (gold, silver, pearls), having tattoos, reading horoscopes, having a bowl cut or many other things
the PoD would most easily be a more radical reading of the 'Dos and Don'ts' in the early christianity (before the First Council of Nicaea)
the PoD would most easily be a more radical reading of the 'Dos and Don'ts' in the early christianity (before the First Council of Nicaea)
mowque
Banned
Not for (most) Christians. We don't hold with the old cultural mores and Convenet. Granted, you could argue it is a cop-out, but this is religion.
The early Christians saw themselves as reformers, and their ultimate goal was to attract followers, so they tended to get rid of most Jewish customs that hampered their ability to convert people, with a few exceptions (10 commandments, one God, things like that). In some ways, Christian doctrine is more heavily influenced by Greek and Roman civilization than the Jews and their holy books.
Titus_Pullo
Banned
Christianity would have to remain a branch of Judaism for that to happen, when gentile converts began outnumbering Jewish Christians still practicing the Mosaic laws, there was just no way that dietary laws are going to fly with so many pork loving converts especially in Europe where those Teutonic barbarians loved their pork and mead.
The PoD would have to go all the way back to the apostles and the Jerusalem Council, which decided that non-Jewish believers were not to be forcibly subjected to those types of laws found in the Old Testament. (Scriptural reference is Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 15)
Changing the Jerusalem Council on dietary restrictions probably effects Christianity far more than we might initially believe. Pigs were not the only forbidden animals in the Torah that were common in Europe (coastal and continental). If pigs were forbidden, then likely other foods would have been as well; this would have made Christianity more culturally similar to the Jewish population and likely more exclusive at least initially. The spread of Christianity might have been stymied a bit. It also would have continued to perpetuate the question of how much Jewish practice, as ennumerated in the Old Testament, was relevant to Christian believers of non-Jewish descent. There likely could have been more early divisions of Christianity or different councils and synods that effected political and culturual history just as much. Every time the church leaders got together, they discussed more than simply theological considerations.
The Jerusalem accords may have had a practical prohibition of pork. These accords did not allow meat that had been sacrificed to idols. It also required animals to be slaughtered kosher-style. Animals sacrificed at pagen temples were usually slaughtered kosher style, but the meat was taboo because it was pagan. Pork from animals slaughtered in secular markets was allowed under the first requirement, but it may not have met the second requirement. If the pig had been clubbed it would not have been slaughtered properly. If a Christian wanted to eat pork, he could go to a secular market with its doubtful slaughtering procedure, or he could go to a temple, where the pig may have been slaughtered properly, but was forbidden because it had been sacrificed to idols. A Jewish market of course would not slaughter pigs.
Paul does not write about non-kosher style meat from secular markets, but he has much to say about meat sacrificed to idols, He says that it is all right to eat it in private. Does anyone have information about how animals were slaughtered in secular markets?
Paul does not write about non-kosher style meat from secular markets, but he has much to say about meat sacrificed to idols, He says that it is all right to eat it in private. Does anyone have information about how animals were slaughtered in secular markets?
Perhaps the European Christian ban on eating porc could be limited to the clergy, in the same way that celibacy was.
So We Albanians would not Eat Pork at all like the Rest of Europeans and Americans would not Eat it All
Scots and Icelandic People are Christians and They Don't Eat Pork and They Avoid Eating it
Scots and Icelandic People are Christians and They Don't Eat Pork and They Avoid Eating it
This. There are practical implications of banning pork for the Middle Eastern Relgions that help pusht he idea somewhat easier.
Edit: Awww fuck it's a necro.
Redbeard
Banned
Exactly!
One of the most valuable possessions of the old Norse Gods was the pig Særimner. When the cook Andrimner cut out lumps of pork it would instantly grow out again and so provided an eternal source of food.
That is quite illustrative of the role of the pig around here (then and now) and any religion proposing to ban pork simply wouldn’t have had a chance.
It's
Banned
Europeans would lose their cheapest source of 1st class protein, and be more poorly nourished as a consequence. That means poorer health, higher mortality, smaller populations, etc, etc...
I remember a standup comedian put the dietary taboo thus- "some people avoid bacon because of a religion. I'd avoid a religion because of bacon!"
Perhaps not the death stroke of Christianity, but I think keeping kosher might be a signal that Paul failed to market it to Gentiles, and thus it remains an obscure Jewish sect. The thing that'd be more problematic than kosher would be the requirement of circumcision; if Jewish law regarding circumcision was ignored, I would wonder why kosher would be kept. I suppose small sects might later attempt to Judaize Christianity like in OTL Russia, but I don't know how it could get mass appeal.
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