Mythological themes and elements occur throughout Christian mythology literature, including recurring myths such as ascending to a mountain, the axis mundi, myths of combat, descent into the Underworld, accounts of a dying-and-rising god, a flood myth, stories about the founding of a tribe or city, and myths about great heroes of the past, paradises, and self-sacrifice.
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Christian mythology tradition has produced a rich body of legends that were never incorporated into the official scriptures.
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Christian mythology tradition produced many popular stories elaborating on canonical scripture.
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Academic studies of Christian mythology often define Christian mythology as deeply valued stories that explain a society's existence and world order: those narratives of a society's creation, the society's origins and foundations, their god, their original heroes, mankind's connection to the "divine", and their narratives of eschatology .
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George Every discusses the connection between the cosmic center and Golgotha in his book Christian Mythology, noting that the image of Adam's skull beneath the cross appears in many medieval representations of the crucifixion.
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Christian mythology cites the Christian legend of Saint George as an example of this theme.
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Christian mythology scripture gives a few descriptions of an immediate afterlife and a heaven and hell; however, for the most part, both New and Old Testaments focus much more on the myth of a final bodily resurrection than any beliefs about a purely spiritual afterlife away from the body.
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Some earliest Christian mythology art depicts heaven as a green pasture where people are sheep led by Jesus as "the good shepherd" as in interpretation of heaven.
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Christian mythology's appearance is terrifying, almost always that of a male goat or a dog.
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Later the theology was carried north by Charlemagne and the Frankish people, and Christian mythology themes began to weave into the framework of European mythologies.
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In many cases, medieval Christian mythology appears to have inherited elements from myths of pagan gods and heroes.
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However other scholars believe mythology is in our psyche, and that mythical influences of Christianity are in many of our ideals, for example the Judeo-Christian idea of an after-life and heaven.
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The book Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X by Tom Beaudoin explores the premise that Christian mythology is present in the mythologies of pop-culture, such as Madonna's Like a Prayer or Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun.
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