As the religious history of the empire is studied more closely, writes M. Cumont, the triumph of the church will, in our opinion, appear more and more as the culmination of a long evolution of beliefs. Hardcover, 335 pages. Christianity was truly indebted to the mystery religions for this contribution, for they had done this part of the groundwork and thus opened the way for Christian missionary work. The inner spiritual, continues ever.. 1. They maintained that it was the work of the devil who helped to confuse men by creating a pagan imitation of the true religion.38, There can hardly be any gainsaying of the fact that Christianity was greatly influenced by the Mystery religions, both from a ritual and a doctrinal angle. it has been suggested that Christianity had its origin in a mystery of initiates. There seems little doubt that this custom was identical with the Egyptian festival. 124125: The popular and widespread religion of Osiris and Isis exercised considerable influence upon early Christianity, for these two great Egyptian deities, whose worship had passed into Europe, were revered in Rome and in several other centres where Christian communities were growing up. In his pagan period he wrote hymns that closely follow the fire theology of the Chaldean Oracles; later he wrote hymns to Christ. purchase. It is well-nigh impossible to . Christianity certainly has many important features in common with Greco-Roman mystery religions, but there are some crucial differences between Christianity and mystery religions that really set Christianity apart. When Mithraism became widespread and powerful, it attracted so much attention that certain Christian apologists felt the need to present an explanation for the similarities in their respective characteristics. The essential features of Christianity were fixed once and for all in this book; the mystery doctrines, however, always remained in a much greater state of fluidity. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. 9:11, 12.\ Now to get back to the festival. 131132: At about this time a story, attributed to Melito, Bishop of Sardis in the Second Century, but probably of much later origin, began to spread that Mary had been miraculously carried to Heaven by Jesus and His angels; and in the Sixth Century the festival of the Assumption, which celebrates this event, was acknowledged by the Church, and is now one of the great feasts of Roman Catholicism, It is celebrated on August 13th; but that was the date of the great festival of Diana or Artemis, with whom Isis was identified, and one can see, thus, how Mary had gradually taken the place of the goddess., 24. The eucharist, likewise through similar in some respects to the communion meal of Mithraism, was not a rite borrowed from it. That night the priests went back to the tomb and found it empty, the god having risen on the third day from the dead; and on the 25th the resurrection was celebrated with great rejoicing. The purity demanded in the worship of Sol and in the Chaldean fire rites was similar to Christian standards. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. The conditions of that era made it possible for these religions to sweep like a tidal wave over the ancient world. Christianity, in its earliest days, shared a good deal in common with the many "mystery religions" which became popular in the Roman Empire. He appears before sunrise on the rocky summits of the mountains; during the day he traverses the wide firmament in his chariot drawn by four white horses, and when night falls he still illumines with flickering glow the surface of the earth, ever waking, ever watchful. He is neither sun, nor moon, nor stars, but with his hundred ears and his hundred eyes watches constantly the world. We can understand the Christianity of the fifth century with its greatness and weaknesses, its spiritual exaltation and its puerile superstitions, if we know the moral antecedents of the world in which it developed.. The precious metal used to coin Constantines gold pieces was taken from heathen temple treasuries. The mystery religions exerted some influence on the thinkers of the Middle Ages and the philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. Download The Mysteries of Mithras Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle. On the contrary many of its forms and some of its old content has been perpetuated in Christianity.30, Mithraism is perhaps the greatest example of paganisms last effort to reconcile itself to the great spiritual movement which was gaining such sturdy influence with its purer conception of God.\[Footnote:] Dill, Roman Society From Nero to Marcus Aurelius, p. 585.\ Ernest Renan, the French philosopher and Orientalist, expressed the opinion that Mithraism would have been the religion of the modern world if anything had occured to halt or destroy the growth of Christianity in the early centuries of its existence. As is commonly known Isis had two capacities which her worshippers warmly commended her for. The preceding two sentences are similar to a passage in A Study of Mithraism, p. 211 in this volume. Hydria by the Varrese Painter (c. 340 BC) depicting Eleusinian scenes. The hypothesis of a mutual dependence has been proposed by scholarsespecially a dependence of Christianity upon the mysteriesbut such theories have been discarded. These fundamental human experiences and the life of nature are the main substances of the Eleusinian Mysteries.28 To the searchers of salvation, the Eleusinian cult offered not only the promise of a happy future, but also a definite assurance of it.\[Footnote:] Nilsson, Greek Popular Religion, p. 54.\, Now when we observe the modern Greek Easter festival it seems certain that it preserves the spirit if not the form of the old Eleusinian worship. These many religions, known as Mystery-Religions, were not alike in every respect: to draw this conclusion would lead to a gratuitous and erroneous supposition. Jesus was the divine Lord. During her short stay at the temple of Eleusis, the whole earth grew barren. Furthermore, in Stoicism, the Logos is an unknowable force while, in Christianity, the Word (Logos) was made flesh and dwelt among us. Osiris and Isis, so the legend runs, were at one and the same time, brother and sister, husband and wife; but Osiris was murdered, his coffined body being thrown into the Nile, and shortly afterwards the widowed and exiled Isis gave birth to a son, Horus. A query from Stephanie on the Ethical Witches list in Austin turned up this paper by Rev. Mystery cults continue to vex scholars because the surviving evidence is problematic, comprising a few written sources, mostly late in date, and often with questionable aims and biases. In the spring, those who had shared Demeters grief for the loss of her daugher welcomed the return of Persephone with all the joy that the returning life of vegetation might kindle. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, p. 123: There can be no doubt that these ceremonies and beliefs deeply coloured the interpretation placed by the first Christians upon the historic facts of the Crucifixion, burial, and coming again to life of Jesus., 15. It is also significant to know that Roman tolerance had favoured this great syncretism of religious ideas. Extremely popular among Roman soldiers, it became one of the ancient Roman mystery cults, religious sects which were restricted to initiates and were generally quite secretive.Mithras, as he was known to the Romans, was the Persian god of the sun, or at least the airy light between . 222223 in this volume. Christianity acknowledges only one way to God (John 14:6) and places utmost importance on right doctrine (1 . The purity demanded in the worship of Sol and in the Chaldean fire rites was similar to Christian standards. Whatever the religious doctrines of the Masonic sect it is plain that they do not embrace the central Christian . The Mystery-Religions and Christianity. Both the Apostles Creed and the Athanasian {Creed} say that between the Friday night and Sunday morning Jesus was in Hades. Was Christianity Originally a Mystery Religion? The latter method is apt to neglect the distinctive contribution of each cult to the religious life of the age and, at the same time, to attribute to a given cult phases of some other system. cit., p. 113.\18 Such facts led almost inevitably to the view that this idea had a pagan origin, since it appears not only in the legend of Adonis, but also in those of Herakles, Dionyses, Orpheus, Osiris, Hermes, Balder, and other deities.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 114.\, The Egyptian mysteries of Isis and Osiris exerted considerable influence upon early Christianity. The parallel development was fostered by the new conditions prevailing in the Roman Empire, in which the old political units were dissolved, and the whole civilized world was ruled by one monarch. The preceding five sentences are similar to a passage in A Study of Mithraism, pp. It had to do with the nature of the Christian religion . It is because of this crusading spirit and its superb power of adaptability that Christianityahs {has} been able to survive. We can understand the Christianity of the fifth century with its greatness and weakness, its spiritual exaltation and its puerile superstitions, if we know the moral antecedents of the world in which it developed.\[Footnote:] Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, p. xxiv.\4 The victory of Christianity in the Roman empire is another example of that universal historical law, viz., that that culture which conquers is in turn conquered. Underneath all expression, whether words, creeds, cults, ceremonies is the spiritual orderthe ever living search of men for higher lifea fuller life, more abundant, satisfying life. S. Angus, The Mystery-Religions and Christianity (London: John Murray, 1925), p. vii: "These Mysteries covered an enormous range, and manifested a great diversity in character and outlook, from Orphism to Gnosticism, from the orgies of the Cabiri to the fervours of the Hermetic contemplative." 3. Now when Christianity triumphed we find that these same paintings and figures became those of the Madonna and child with little or no difference.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 123\ In fact archaeologists are often left in confusion in attempting to distinguish the one from the other.22, It is also interesting to note that in the second century a story began to spread stating that Mary had been miraculously carried to Heaven by Jesus and His angels.\[Footnote:] The spreading of this story has been attributed to Melito, Bishop of Sardis.\ In the sixth century a festival came to be celebrated around this event known as the festival of Assumption, and it is now one of the greatest feasts of Roman Catholicism. The Mystery Religions form a link between the inclusive pantheon of the Greeks and the more modern exclusive religions of today. Martin Luther King Jr. titled "The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity."King wrote it around the . Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, p. 135: It was suppressed by the Christians in a.d. 376 and 377; but its collapse seems to have been due rather to the fact that by that time many of its doctrines and ceremonies had been adopted by the Church, so that it was practically absorbed by its rival., 32. People were free to move from one country to another and became cosmopolitan. The cult of Isis became a mystery religion only after Ptolemy the . It was a nature myth portraying a vivid and realistic picture of the action of life in the vegetable world in regards to the changing seasons. But when we observe a little further we find that as a solar festival, Sunday was the sacred day of Mithra; it is also interesting to notice that since Mithra was addressed as Lord, Sunday must have been the Lords Day long before Christian use.\[Footnote:] Ibid., p. 137.\ It is also to be noticed that our Christmas, December 25th, was the birthday of Mithra, and was only taken over in the Fourth Century as the date, actually unknown, of the birth of Jesus.36, To make the picture a little more clear, we may list a few of the similarities between these two religions: (1) Both regard Sunday as a holy day. It is well-nigh impossible to grasp Christianity through and through without knowledge of these cults.5 It must be remembered, as implied above, that Christianity was not a sudden and miraculous transformation, springing, forth full grown as Athene sprang from the head of Zeus, but it is a composite of slow and laborious growth. In both cases, national religions of a ritualistic type were transformed, and the transformation followed similar lines: from national to ecumenical religion, from ritualistic ceremonies and taboos to spiritual doctrines set down in books, from the idea of inherited tradition to the idea of revelation. Each year nature passed through the cycle of apparent death and resurrection. The first Christian communities resembled the mystery communities in big cities and seaports by providing social security and the feeling of brotherhood. The origin of this cult is obscure and uncertain. Regardless, one consequence of interpreting Christianity as an embellished mystery religion is the conclusion that Christian faith per se is the invention of men, not a revelation from God. The festival of all Saints, which is held one day before that of all Souls is also probably identical with it in origin.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. However, when faced with the persecution that Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have faced in the past the "mysteries could not go underground because they lacked any organization. 39. Mystery Religion-Basic Traits. Freedom's Ring: King's "I Have a Dream" Speech, The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume I: Called to Serve, January 1929-June 1951. The centres of pagan resistance were Rome, where the old aristocracy clung to the mysteries, and Alexandria, where the pagan Neoplatonist philosophers expounded the mystery doctrines. (3) All offered mystical cleansing from sin. The essay examines how Christianity developed as a distinct religion with a set of central tenets and how it was influenced by those pagan religions it assimilated. They prepared the people mentally and emotionally to understand the type of religion which Christianity represented. In speaking of the indispensability of knowledge of these cults as requisite for any serious study of Christianity, Dr. Angus says: As an important background to early Christianity and as the chief medium of sacramentarianism to the West they cannot be neglected; for to fail to recognize the moral and spiritual values of Hellenistic-Oriental paganism is to misunderstand the early Christian centuries and to do injustice to the victory of Christianity. This tree afterwards chanced to be cut down and made into a pillar in the palace at Byblos, and there Isis at length found it. At an early date there was associated with Cybele, the Great Mother, a hero-divinity called Attic who personified the life of the vegetable world particularly. In connection with the temple, she established certain ceremonies and rites for her worship. On the contrary it was generally a natural and unconscious process rather than a deliberate plan of action. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Neoplatonism resonated with the mystery religions because of its idea of (p. 236), The Stoic idea of logos expresses that the world is governed by (p. 235), The Gospels, which presented Christianity as a distinct religion, were written (p. 232) and more. It was believed that this god suffered a cruel death, after which he descended into hell, rose again, and then ascended into Heaven. The words of St. Paul, They drank of that spiritual rock and that rock was Christ also seem to be {a} direct borrow from the Mithraic scriptures.35, The Hebrew Sabbath having been abolished by Christians, the Church made a sacred day of Sunday, partly because it was the day of resurrection. In the Avesta,\[Footnote:] This is the sacred book of the religion of Iran.\ Mithra is represented as the genius of celestial light. Initiation into a mystery religion. Beliefs of the religion which are public knowledge but cannot be easily explained by normal rational or scientific means. This does not mean that there was a deliberate copying on the part of Christianity. ISBN-13 : 978-0486231242. Dimensions : 5.37 x 0.73 x 8.4 inches. However these specific differences need not concern us, for the most significant aspects are common in all the various versions.10 We are concerned at this point with showing how this religion influenced the thought of early Christians. When we come to Christian thought the influence seems even greater, for even the place at Bethleham selected by the early Christians as the scene of the birth of Jesus was none other than an early shrine of this pagan goda fact that led many to confuse Adonis with Jesus Christ.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. It was in this city that there was celebrated each year the death and resurrection of the god Adonis. [also note from page3]: This Dover edition, first published in 1975, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the second (1928) edition of the work originally published by John Murray, in London, in 1925 under the title The Mystery-Religions and Christianity. Never stop with the external, which may seem like borrowing, but recognize there is the perennial struggle for truth, fuller life itself. in his Christian Mysticism, p. 354, says that Catholicism owes to the Mysteries " the notions of secrecy, of It is evident that in Rome there was a festival celebrating the death and resurrection of Attis. The Mystery Religions were eventually wiped out by Christianity. Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305. After telling a fictitious tale of her escape from pirates, she won the sympathy of the girls who took her home and at her own request was given a job to nurse their infant brother, Demophon. Modern reconstructions that view the mysteries as a cohesive religious phenomenon run the risk of oversimplification. Question 10 1 out of 1 points It is likely that Christianity borrowed from the mystery religions, but when Christianity did this was hundreds of years after it began, and thus has nothing to do with the core of Christian proclamation. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, p. 114: She was the Great Mother not only of all the gods, but of all men as well.. Christianity's recently launched He Gets US campaignmillions of people got a dose during the Superbowltells us two things: 1. King wrote this paper for the course Development of Christian Ideas, taught by Davis. In the end, virtually all the unique teachings of New Testament theology, including the distinctive doctrines on Jesus Christ, God, man, sin, salvation, etc . The similarities must rather be explained by parallel developments from similar origins. The word "Catholic" means Universalthe true Christian goal is not religion based on mixture, but a return to the original, simple, powerful, and spiritual faith that was once delivered to the saints."-Ralph Woodrow; pg. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, pp. So through experience, knowledge, as through other forms, the outer manifestations of religion change. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, p. 42: Demeter, in her joy at the restoration of her lost daughter, allowed the crops to grow once more and instituted in honor of the event the Eleusinian mysteries which gave to mortals the assurance of a happy future life., 27. In the latter capacity Isis was represented in tens of thousands of statuettes and paintings, holding the divine child in her arms. Christianity triumphed over these mystery religions after long conflict. The divine personage in whom this cult centered was the Magna Mater Deum who was conceived as the source of all life as well as the personification of all the powers of nature.\[Footnote:] Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, p. 114.\7 She was the Great Mother not only of all the gods, but of all men as well.8 The winds, the sea, the earth, and the snowy seat of Olympus are hers, and when from her mountains she ascends into the great heavens, the son of Cronus himself gives way before her, and in like manner do also the other immortal blest honor the dread goddess.\[Footnote:] Quoted in Willoughbys, Pagan Regeneration, p. 115.9\. The answer is "yes" - and also "no". At this moment the light from the candle of the priest is passed on to light the candles of his companions; guns and firecrackers are discharged as they prepare to break the Lenten fast.\[Footnote:] Fairbanks, Greek Religion, p. 288.\29 As in the Eleusinian mysteries the modern Greek Christian finds this a moment of supreme joy. Genres Religion HistoryNonfictionThe World. First published in the 1920s, this work is still the standard on the various mystery religions so popular in Greece and Rome before the establishment of Christianity. 4. 384 pages, Paperback. There is more to the story before the flood, but as things started new after the flood, we will start from this point. The Easter ceremonies rivalled the pagan spring festivals. The Influence Of The Cult Of Cybele and Attis, The first Oriental religion to invade the west was the cult of the Great Mother of the Gods. The Christian churches needed large interior spaces to house the growing congregations and to mark the clear separation of the faithful from the unfaithful. Firstly, she was pictured as the lady of sorrows, weeping for the dead Osiris, and secondly she was commended as the divine mother, nursing her infant son, Horus. It is improbable, however, that either of these were introduced into Christian practices by association with the mystery cults. The god of death himself stole the beloved daughter away from the life-giver; but the divine mother would not give up her loved one, and in the end she accomplished her daughters resurrection. Now we know from old Egyptian records that a feast in honour of all the dead, when such lamps were lit, was held about November 8th., 21. The preceding two paragraphs are similar to a passage in A Study of Mithraism, pp. Meanwhile the coffin was washed up on the Syrian coast, and became miraculously lodged in the trunk of a tree. Christianity emerged and grew at a time when mystery religions were popular throughout the Roman Empire. It should also be noted that early Christianity was an exclusivistic religion while the mystery cults were not. It is this fact that immediately brings to mind the words in the Epistle to the Hebrews: But Christ being come an High Priest neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood obtained eternal redemption for us.\[Footnote:] Heb. To show the beginning of a new era, the capital of the empire was transferred to the new Christian city of Constantinople. The mystery religions were syncretistic, which means followers could incorporate beliefs from other religions into their own set of views. Some writers traced its origin to Egypt while others upheld Eleusis in Greece as the place of its birth. If the definition is that the religion keeps things secret, then no, because secrets are about maintaining secrecy and exclusivity, and Latter-Day Saints do the . During this great celebration a sacramental meal of some kind was taken, and initiates were baptised with blood, whereby their sins were washed away and they were said to be born again.\[Footnote:] Weigall, The Paganism In Our Christianity, pp. Reprinted as The Mystery-Religions: A Study in the Religious Background of Early Christianity (New York, 1975). He hears all and sees all: none can deceive him.\[Footnote:] Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra, pp. Cypress Hall D, 466 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305-4146 Therefore it is necessary to study the historical and social factors that contributed to the growth of Christianity. Scholars wrongly infused Christian terms into the mystery religion. This article discusses mystery religions and how they influenced the New Testament and early Christianity. 6. #1,225 in History of Christianity (Books) Best Sellers Rank: #329,817 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books) #317 in General History of Religion. 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