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  5. Volume 44 (2023): Christianisation in the East Baltic: (Re)interpretations of Artefacts, Views and Accounts = Christianizacija rytiniame Baltijos regione: artefaktų, pažiūrų ir pasakojimų (re)interpretacijos
  6. Angels Raising Souls to Heaven: Images o ...

Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

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Angels Raising Souls to Heaven: Images of Entering Life after Death during the Christianisation of Livonia and Prussia
Volume 44 (2023): Christianisation in the East Baltic: (Re)interpretations of Artefacts, Views and Accounts = Christianizacija rytiniame Baltijos regione: artefaktų, pažiūrų ir pasakojimų (re)interpretacijos, pp. 81–98
Marius Ščavinskas ORCID icon link to view author Marius Ščavinskas details  

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https://doi.org/10.15181/ahuk.v44i0.2572
Pub. online: 7 December 2023      Type: Article      Open accessOpen Access

Published
7 December 2023

Abstract

With the Christianisation of the Lithuanians in the Middle Ages, fundamental changes brought new Christian images of the Otherworld and entry to it. The image of souls being raised to heaven by angels is one of the images that emerged in the wake of changes in burial rituals. Based on Medieval historical sources, the article examines the image of the angel ascending to heaven that emerged in Balt and Finno-Ugric countries during their Christianisation. It explains how it is related to the Christian image of the Otherworld, and how it changed the pre-Christian Balt and Finno-Ugric mythical perception of the world beyond. It also explores the question of whether, in the Balt and Finno-Ugric mythical world-view, there may have been companions that conducted the soul in the Otherworld (psychopomps), which are seen as angels in Christianity. The research shows that in the earliest written sources describing ancient Balt and Finno-Ugric burials, there is no mention of spirits or deities acting as psychopomps, or of deities in charge of the deceased. The article argues that converts may have learned about angels raising souls to heaven because burial rituals and the concept of life after death changed in the course of Christianisation in Livonia and Prussia.

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Keywords
souls ascending to heaven Christianisation psychopomp concepts of life after death Livonia Prussia Middle Ages

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