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Alright so today I got confirmed into Chruch. As I was sitting down in the pew watching the Bishop and Priest walk down I thought to myself, Christianity is much related Space Marines. The logic behind that is that all the Space Marines love the God/Emperor, just like Christianity how they worship God/Jesus. Jesus was very powerful too, healing people and making miracles just like the Emperor, very powerful. Also a Chaplain is someone that is a member of the Clergy, Space Marines have Chaplains that fight for the Emperor (God/Jesus). Space Marines take their purity seals like Christians take the bible. Lastly Space Marines hate the Chaos for being heretics to the God/Emperor and being disbelievers, just like in Medieval times when Crusaders would kill disbelievers. Thats pretty much all I can really think of at the moment, also DON'T QUOTE ON ANYTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION, I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT IT. I want to know what you guys also think if their is anything else in common. Thanks guys.
-M.C.

Not really. The Space Marines don't worship the Emperor except on rare occasions.

One could argue that the Ecclesiarchy is like a weird and extremely variant form of Christianity. But Space Marine beliefs typically are closer to a mild form of ancestor worship.

There are many parallel's between Medieval Europe and the Imperium, although I would not say any faction within the Imperium is based upon Christianity.

Edit / Append:
I would think that Space Marines are loosely based upon Knightly orders, Warrior-monks fighting crusades throughout the Galaxy in the name of the Emperor(Although they do not worship him as a god.)

Thaanos wrote:There are many parallel's between Medieval Europe and the Imperium, although I would not say any faction within the Imperium is based upon Christianity.

Well I guess the point I'm really trying to convey is the fact it seems like the Imperium is related to religion not just Christianity.

Surfboard66 wrote:Alright so today I got confirmed into Chruch. As I was sitting down in the pew watching the Bishop and Priest walk down I thought to myself, Christianity is much related Space Marines. The logic behind that is that all the Space Marines love the God/Emperor, just like Christianity how they worship God/Jesus. Jesus was very powerful too, healing people and making miracles just like the Emperor, very powerful. Also a Chaplain is someone that is a member of the Clergy, Space Marines have Chaplains that fight for the Emperor (God/Jesus). Space Marines take their purity seals like Christians take the bible. Lastly Space Marines hate the Chaos for being heretics to the God/Emperor and being disbelievers, just like in Medieval times when Crusaders would kill disbelievers. Thats pretty much all I can really think of at the moment, also DON'T QUOTE ON ANYTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION, I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT IT. I want to know what you guys also think if their is anything else in common. Thanks guys.
-M.C.

I would say there are some parallels. I'm pretty sure Space Marines see themselves as the actual children of the emperor while for some Christan denominations the whole god's children is more of a metaphor.

I would say they can be crazy zealots like Christians have and can be.

How closely they match depends more on your personal beliefs about the two groups.

All the parallels are very, very intentional on GW's part, and they've always been there.

Don't you mean Christianity is like the Imperial Cult?

The Imperial Ecclesiarchy casts itself a bit like Catholicism adminstratively with an attachment to the 'god-Emperor'. The names appear similar because High Gothic is represented as Latin. English (for English speaking readers) represents Low Gothic and the two languages fill similar functions as they do in our real universe.

Real religion is present and mentioned by name. In Prospero Burns for instance, more than one character is associated with Catherism and close enough to be Catharism.
I personally think Catherism/Catharism tenets played a significant role in the development of Emperor worship in 40k.

Two places where I believe important events occured in the 40k universe and mentioned on more than one occasion in the fluff were France and the Balkans/Anatolia/Caucasus. The latter area has been identified as the birthplace of the Emperor. These areas were also significant to Catharism as well.

Just speculation of course, but the parallels are kinda interesting.

Wellt he Cult of the Emperor is pretty similar to Dark Age/Medieval Christianity. Space Marines on the other hand seem to feel that the Emperor should be venerated simply because he is the greatest example of humanity, with the Primarchs a close second. The old space wolf codex in particular says that they pay tribute to the Emperor as he was the only man to ever best Leman Russ in combat. (Barring Lion'El Johnsson however, but I doubt the puppies would say that. )

Remember where Games Workshop comes from.

England.

A lot of the imagery from 40k and Fantasy are derived from English and European history (though not too slavishly).

Yes, Space Marines are depicted as warrior monks, crusading knights, savage barbarians, scheming sorcerers etc. It is quite deliberate on the part of GW.

I think the point is it is supposed to be a dark parody.

Read the short compilations book from the HH: The Last Church.

The Emperor basically debunks moderns Christianity.

Enjoy.

Well yes.. According to some jesus did away with social conventions of religon (rituals and church and so on) yet the roman catholic church is full of them... simialrly the emperor led humanity as humans unifying them, was betrayed and killed. 'Ascended'.

Now people worship him. The church has relics rituals latin and so on.

The parallels are there and intentional.

Space Marines don't worship the emperor as a God, but for that reason, i never understood Chaplains other then as non executing commissars. But the Imperium as a whole, is pretty close to Christianity, especially the Echlesiarchy(i just derped up that word...) and their mighty battle nuns. And the Guard works in the very same way, ignorant masses being told tales of a man who they all owe their lives too.

Chaplains are basically the physical embodiment of whatever it is the SM in particular are fighting for...
Emperor, Primarch, people etc
They keep the marines focused and provide a link both to the chapter as a whole and their culture.
After all a marine has sacrificed everything to become more-than-human but he has still lost a lot they may not have doubts like we do but they still have their crisis' and moments of weakness... then again that also depends on the chapter.

Surfboard66 wrote:Alright so today I got confirmed into Chruch.

DON'T QUOTE ON ANYTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION, I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT IT.

That's a bit of an odd combination of things to say, isn't it?

Phototoxin wrote:Well yes.. According to some jesus did away with social conventions of religon (rituals and church and so on) yet the roman catholic church is full of them... simialrly the emperor led humanity as humans unifying them, was betrayed and killed. 'Ascended'.

Now people worship him. The church has relics rituals latin and so on.

The parallels are there and intentional.

Actually, High Gothic is more useful as a translation tool between the various dialects of Low Gothic, so unlike latin it serves a purpose other than exclusion.

There's only one High Gothic. There are, however, millions if not billions of different dialects of Low Gothic.

I can't believe i'm reading half of this - One of the most obvious things that 40k has ever expressed is that is it hyperbole of extremism within religion! Ah, phototoxin gets it.

Surfboard66 wrote:
Well I guess the point I'm really trying to convey is the fact it seems like the Imperium is related to religion not just Christianity.

Well, yeah, the IoM is rife with religion literally everywhere, it's almost the whole point of it all, pointing it all out is repetitively redundant.

I'd say the SM worship the Emperor, with some ancestor worship, but with a focus on the God-Emperor.

the basic feel of 40k is middle and dark age europe, specifically northern european.

walk into a Gothic style cathedral and you will see why.