Syncretism is the attempt to reconcile disparate, even opposing, beliefs and to meld practices of various schools of thought. It is especially associated with the attempt to merge and analogize several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, and thus assert an underlying unity.
Syncretism is also common in literature, music, the representational arts and other expressions of culture. (Compare the concept of eclecticism.)
Syncretism tends to facilitate coexistence and constructive interaction between different cultures, a factor that has recommends it to rulers of multi-ethnic realms. Conversely the rejection of syncretism, usually in the name of "piety" and "orthodoxy", helps generate and authorize a sense of cultural unity.
The word Syncretism comes from Latinsyncretismus, which in turn comes from the Greek συγκρητισμός (synkretismos) which means that two join a pact against a third. The elements are the syn ("together") and cretus (the past participle of crescere, "to grow"); the latter also occurs in "concrete" and "accretion".
The word occurs in Plutarch's essay on "Fraternal Love" in his Moralia (1st century CE). He cites the example of the Cretans who were reconciliated in their differences and came together in alliance when faced with external dangers. "And that is their so-called Syncretism." However we have no other examples of that epoch, and none where the word is used in its modern sense. That had to wait Erasmus use of the term in his Adagia ("Adages"), published in the winter of 1517-1518, to designate the coherence of dissenters in spite of their difference of theological opinions. In a letter to Melancthon, April 22, 1519, Erasmus specifically adduced the Cretans of Plutarch, an example of his adage "Concord is a mighty rampart."
These identifications derive from the Hellenic habit of identifying gods of disparate mythologies with their own. When the proto-Greeks whose language would evolve into Greek first arrived in the Aegean and mainland Greece early in the 2nd millennium BC, they found localized nymphs and divinities already connected with every important feature of the landscape: mountain, grove, cave and spring all had their locally-venerated deity. The countless epithets of the Olympian gods reflect this syncretic character. "Zeus Molossos", as worshiped only at Dodona, is "the god identical to Zeus as worshipped by the Molossians at Dodona." Much apparently arbitrary and trivial mythic fabling is the result of later mythographers' attempts to explain these obscure epithets.
The correspondences varied: Jupiter is perhaps a better match for Zeus than say the rural huntress Diana is for the feared Artemis. Ares is not quite Mars. The Anatolian goddess Cybele was physically imported to Rome from her Anatolian cult center Pessinos in the original aniconic archaic stone idol; she was identified in Rome as Magna Mater and was given a matronly, iconic image that had been developed in Hellenistic Pergamum.
Likewise, when the Romans encountered Celts and Teutons, they mingled these Northern gods with their own, creating Apollo Sucellos (Apollo the Good Smiter) and Mars Thingsus (Mars of the war-assembly), among many others. In the Germania, the Roman writer Tacitus speaks of Teutonic worshippers of Hercules and Mercury; most modern scholars conclude that Hercules was likely Thor, and Mercury was Odin.
Nascent Christianity clearly incorporated many Pagan elements. All scholars agree to this syncretism in principle, though any specific example is likely to be labeled "controversial."
"Syncretism" was not on the table when Christianity split into East and West rites during the Great Schism. It was invoked however with the rifts of the Protestant Reformation, with Desiderius Erasmus's readings of Plutarch. In 1615 David Pareus of Heidelberg urged Christians to a "pious syncretism" in opposing Antichrist, but few 17th century Protestants discussed the compromises that might effect a reconciliation with the Catholic Church: the Lutheran G. Calisen "Calixtus" (1586-1656) was ridiculed by Calovius (1612-1685) for his "syncretism."
The modern celebrations of Christmas (originating from Pagan Yule holidays) and Halloween are examples of relatively late Christian syncretism. Roman Catholicism in Central and South America has also integrated a number of elements derived from indigenous cultures in those areas.
