The miracle of marketing – a few words about pop-culture and Christianisation

Why is pop-culture so popular? What makes the simple, predictable and often unoriginal melodies, paintings or movies be so popular, have hordes of fans and generate so much profit? There is for sure many reasons, but the main one is… their popularity – not in the “well known or accepted” meaning of this word but rather in the other “plain, easy to grasp, common, ordinary” meaning.

The popular culture is created to be widely accepted and understood, this is why its creators focus on incorporating as many universal, common and widely known elements. Hence most of pop songs are love songs – because love is one of the most universal and widely accepted as positive feelings, experienced at least once by every single human.

So, what has pop culture to do with Christianisation? Well, as it appears – a lot. The success of Christianity (as the success of popular culture) was not a result of some extremely unique, revolutionary idea, but was directly correlated with a rigorous application of very well constructed marketing plan, which medieval missionaries seemed to have intuitive understanding of, well before the word “marketing” was invented.

Targeting level +10

How to make sure they’ll hear you

Let’s start from the beginning – from the 1st century CE. Christianity was back then a tiny religious group. Christians (virtually all of them Jews) preached about Jesus’s love in the synagogues of Palestine and Syria. The history of Christianity could easily have ended there, if not the intervention of Saul of Tarsus (Paul the Apostle) – an eloquent pharisee with uncanny talent in PR. It was Saul/Paul who contributed to changing a small jewish sect into a populistic, egalitarian, fully fledged religion. How did he do it? In a very simple way: he proclaimed that anyone can become a Christian; no entry requirements whosoever - no offerings, no circumcision, no need to prove proper ancestry, no buying in, nothing! Even the dietary requirements were minimal, particularly comparing to Judaism. Like that wasn’t enough in early Christianism women had the same rights and men (I know, I know, it’s hard to believe, but it’s true - just look up Pauline epistles in the New Testament). Thanks to his public speaking talents, during the Council of Jerusalem Saul/Paul managed to sell his ideas to the other apostles of the newly blossoming religion and this is how the easiest, most user friendly monotheistic religion of the world was born.

We must not forget – back in those times in the Middle East pretty much all Gods required not only a prayer but also an offering, often every single day. Many of the rituals had to be performed by a skilled priest, who, obviously, wanted to be paid. Religions like Judaism put the believers under strict rules of laws, traditions and social regulations. No wonder the Christian ideas of love and equality were so attractive to many and almost non-existent entry requirements made it even easier to join. Smart, huh? Of course, it’s smart. One could almost say – very pop.

Of course, the history of early Christians was dotted not only with success. The firsts 300 years Christians were persecuted, mostly on political grounds (like when emperors Nero, Domitius or Diocletian organised purges to score points with the Jews), sometimes also because of religion (massacres of Christians organised by other religious groups). However, following the example of Saul/Paul the Christian bishops used the bloodshed of the believers to forge an excellent marketing strategy. After all – who doesn’t appreciate a martyr? Hollywood action movies are the best proof that, even nowadays, a suffering hero fighting for humanity has a tremendous market value.

Business plan level +40

One in a lifetime investor

The real breakthrough in the history of Christianity happened when an influential investor came along – none other but the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. It was Constantine who provided the Saul/Paul’s project with a media platform and proper financing. What did the emperor get from the deal, you might ask? Well, as it turns out – quite a lot. He got an ideology that was well thought-trough, very catchy and promised great rewards after a lifetime of suffering – just what an empire needs to flourish. Christian subject of the Empire did not have to be looked after (because the greater his/hers suffering in earthly life, the bigger the reward in Heaven), always forgave and was willing to pay for forgiveness (buying absolution of sins), were brain washed to be humble (nothing better than an unquestioning, humble servant) and believed that the Grace of God works in an un-understandable way (classic Christian concept of the God’s punishment being in fact an act of love, testing the faith of the believer). What’s not to love here? Especially if you are the Emperor.

It is worth noting that around the time of Constantin the Great Christianity started to show it’s real face. The theologians started to ponder how to rationalise the killing of the unfaithful and the slavery; the long-term plan of limiting women’s right was initiated and the war on heresy began.

Over the centuries Christian missionaries and bishops many times showed their exceptional marketing skills. Examples are aplenty, but due to the limitation of the blog (and also not to bore you), I’ll give only the most spectacular two:

Rebranding level +100

How to make a cross out of fish and a Slav out of a Palestynian.

The first symbol of Christianity was a fish, known as ichtys (from Old Greek). As long as Christianity remained under the influence of the Mediterranean culture, this symbol was understandable for everybody. However, with the expansion of Christianity into the land of Germanic and then Slavic tribes, ichtys started to lose its universal meaning. The Pagans of the North not only did not speak Old Greek, but also worshipped the Sun. For them the symbol of a fish was as understandable as for most Europeans Dharma Chakra is – not very much. No wonder then that the German and Slavic tribes could not comprehend why, instead of the Sun, they should start to worship a fish. The Christian missionaries saw it and immediately put their marketing skills to work. Quickly and without a fuss they turn the fish into a cross, for reference using solar symbols well known amongst the Pagans. This is how the cross was born – the current symbol of Christianity.

Pagan solar symbol (left) and Christian Celtic cross (right)

Apart of the issue of understandable symbolic, another problem the Christian missionaries had with the Germanic, Celtic or Slavic folk was the Northerners’ looks. Most of the Pagans who were being Christianised looked completely different that the people from the Middle East. Instead of short, dark hair, dark skin, wide noses and stocky build, they had light hair, eyes and skin, long narrow noses and typically were taller than the Southerners. As you can imagine it was quite a big problem if the missionaries wanted the Pagans to accept the Christianity as their new religion. It is not surprising then that the missionaries had no choice but to start presenting Jesus as a Celt, or a Slav, and not as a Jew (who Jesus in fact was).

To this day it remains a mystery as to who exactly the Catholic saints saw in their visions, if the real Jesus of Nazareth looked like that:

Jesus according to an anthropologist Richard Neave