The Borgund Stavekirk (stave church) was built sometime before 1150 AD, and is dedicated to St. Andrew.
(Click to enlarge.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The late Christopher Hitchens lamented that \u201creligion poisons everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s difficult to see how Scandinavian culture was \u201cpoisoned\u201d by the acceptance of Christianity.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Certainly the Irish wouldn\u2019t have thought so. \u00a0They had suffered at the hands of the pagan Norsemen for generations, and were, no doubt, very relieved at anything that might rein them in.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And to anybody familiar with the glorious stave churches whose survivors still dot the Norwegian landscape, it will seem strange to regard those striking medieval structures as \u201cpoison.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 The late Christopher Hitchens lamented that \u201creligion poisons everything.\u201d \u00a0 But it\u2019s difficult to see how Scandinavian culture was \u201cpoisoned\u201d by the acceptance of Christianity. \u00a0 Certainly the Irish wouldn\u2019t have thought so. \u00a0They had suffered at the hands of the pagan Norsemen for generations, and were, no doubt, very relieved at anything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>