They were called mystery religions because individuals went through a secret ritualistic ceremony that was made known only to the initiates conducting the ceremony and to those being . Still others felt that, after the death of Jesus, the disciples saw in their common meal an opportunity to hold a kind of memorial service for him. 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.. Show more. 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. When they sat down to write they were expressing consciously that which had dwelled in their subconscious minds. 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. The theology of the mysteries was developed to a far lesser degree than the Christian theology. We should try to see the dark comedy in all things. Modern reconstructions that view the mysteries as a cohesive religious phenomenon run the risk of oversimplification. To discuss Christianity without mentioning other religions would be like discussing the greatness of the Atlantic Ocean without the slightest mention of the many tributaries that keep it flowing.40. cit., p. 125.\23, The Influence Of The Greater Mysteries At Eleusis. 9.1K Followers. Some writers traced its origin to Egypt while others upheld Eleusis in Greece as the place of its birth. The more crusading a religion is, the more it absorbs. Certainly Christianity has been a crusading religion from the beginning. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. This sacramental use of the term did not become established until the fourth century, when the mystery religions were no longer serious competitors of Christianity. Paperback : 384 pages. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. As for my characterization of Mormonism, it depends on the definition. The doctrine of the soul taught in Gnostic communities was almost identical to that taught in the mysteries: the soul emanated from the Father, fell into the body, and had to return to its former home. In the end, virtually all the unique teachings of New Testament theology, including the distinctive doctrines on Jesus Christ, God, man, sin, salvation, etc . Download The Mysteries of Mithras Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle. They prepared the people mentally and emotionally to understand the type of religion which Christianity represented. In a mystery religion, an inner core of beliefs, practices, and the religion's true nature, . Item Weight : 14.3 ounces. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, p. 42: The experiential basis for this story is quite clear. 187, 188.\. 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. Because these religions believed there was just one god, they prohibited worshiping other gods. Genres Religion HistoryNonfictionThe World. cit., p. 129.\34, Again tradition has it that Mithra was born from a rock, the god out of the rock. It must also be noticed that his worship was always conducted in a cave. But after being in contact with these surrounding religions and hearing certain doctrines expressed, it was only natural for some of these views to become a part of their subconscious minds. 2. If a mystery religion is one in which participation is "reserved to initiates," then yes, unquestionably so. ISBN-10 : 0486231240. He says: Following the lead of the apostle Paul, the Christian missionaries on gentile soil finally made of Christianity a more appealing religion than any of the other mystery cults. the calling of the Gentiles into the Christian Church, so designated ( Ephesians 1:9 Ephesians 1:10; 3:8-11; Colossians 1:25-27); a truth undiscoverable except by revelation, long hid, now made manifest.The resurrection of the dead ( 1 Corinthians 15:51), and other doctrines which need to be explained but which cannot be fully understood by finite intelligence ( Matthew 13:11; Romans . The mysteries declined quickly when the emperor Constantine raised Christianity to the status of the state religion. This was due to St. Augustine of Hippo, who was influenced by the early Neoplatonists Plotinus and Porphyry, as well as the works of the Christian writer Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, who was influenced . People were free to move from one country to another and became cosmopolitan. The Easter ceremonies rivalled the pagan spring festivals. Early Christian writers, aware of the similarity between Christianity and mystery-cult, claim that the latter is a diabolical imitation of the former" (Dionysus, Richard Seaford, 126.) It seems instead to have been carried over from Jewish background and modified by the new ideas and beliefs of the Christians. 6 Mithraism. Cypress Hall D, 466 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305-4146 In the Avesta,\[Footnote:] This is the sacred book of the religion of Iran.\ Mithra is represented as the genius of celestial light. Although the above paragraph makes it obvious that there are many similarities between these two religions, we must guard against the fallacy of seeing all similarity as direct borrowing. " King wrote . Joining a mystery religion was a personal decision and was not connected to what family or culture one belonged to. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. titled "The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity."King wrote it around the . 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. purchase. The previous five sentences are similar to a passage in Kings earlier paper, A Study of Mithraism, pp. As is commonly known Isis had two capacities which her worshippers warmly commended her for. 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. 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. Never stop with the external, which may seem like borrowing, but recognize there is the perennial struggle for truth, fuller life itself. [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. 37. The cult of Isis became a mystery religion only after Ptolemy the . Grant Showerman, introduction to Franz Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (Chicago: Open House Publishing Company, 1911), pp. 116, 117.\13, There can hardly be any doubt of the fact that these ceremonies and beliefs strongly coloured the interpretation placed by the first Christians upon the life and death of the historic Jesus.14 Moreover, the merging of the worship of Attis into that of Jesus was effected without interruption, for these pagan ceremonies were enacted in a sanctuary on the Vatican Hill, which was afterwards taken over by the Christians, and the mother church of St. Peter now stands upon the very spot.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 117.\, Another popular religion which influenced the thought of early Christians was the worship of Adonis. "The correspondences between Christianity and the other mystery religions of antiquity are perhaps more startling than the differences. 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. This still stands as a festival in the ecclesiastical calendar; and thus Christians unconsciously perpetuate the worship of Osiris and the commemoration of all his subjects in the Kingdom of the Dead., 22. Best Sellers Rank: #329,817 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books) #317 in General History of Religion. The people were conditioned by the contact with the older religions and the background and general trend of the time.39 Dr. Shirley Jackson Case has written some words that are quite apt at this point. Esoteric Christianity (linked with the Hermetic Corpus since the Renaissance) is an ensemble of Christian theology which proposes that some spiritual doctrines of Christianity can only be understood by those who have undergone certain rites (such as baptism) within the religion.In mainstream Christianity, there is a similar idea that faith is the only means by which a . 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. Paris, 1930 . It can be shown that the very earliest practices of Christianity coincided with popular mystery cults on many levels. 118119: But there is one feature of the Gospel story which seems really to have been borrowed from the Adonis religion, and, in fact, from other pagan religions also, namely, the descent into Hell. Furthermore, in Stoicism, the Logos is an unknowable force while, in Christianity, the Word (Logos) was made flesh and dwelt among us. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. They originated in tribal ceremonies that were performed by primitive peoples in many parts of the world. The Eleusinian myth told of these fundamental human experiences as well as of the life of nature., 29. The answer is "yes" - and also "no". The Mysteries of Mithras presents a revival of this ancient Roman mystery religion, popular from the late second century B.C. 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. All this goes to show how important Mithraism was in ancient times. 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. It was in this city that there was celebrated each year the death and resurrection of the god Adonis. The origin of this cult is obscure and uncertain. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. MLKP, MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass. The mystery religion of Ancient Babylon is the beginning of the occult, after the great flood that destroyed man . Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. it has been suggested that Christianity had its origin in a mystery of initiates. As the religious history of the empire is studied more closely, writes Cumont, the triumph of the church will, in our opinion, appear more and more as the culmination of a long evolution of beliefs. A query from Stephanie on the Ethical Witches list in Austin turned up this paper by Rev. But it was this very date that the festival of Dianna or Artemis was celebrated, with whom Isis was identified. 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. Meanwhile the coffin was washed up on the Syrian coast, and became miraculously lodged in the trunk of a tree. Arthur Fairbanks, A Handbook of Greek Religion (New York: American Book Company, 1910), p. 288: Certainly the Greek Easter festival seems to preserve the spirit if not the forms of the old Eleusinian worship. The festival ended with the celebration of his ascention in the sight of his worshippers.16 Needless to say that this story of the death and resurrection of Adonis is quite similar to the Christian story of the death and resurrection of Christ. The religious art of the Christians continued the pagan art of the preceding generations. The Greeks interpreted the national religions of the Greek Orient chiefly in terms of Platos philosophical and religious concepts. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, p. 41: In order to understand the type of religious experience represented by this important cult, it is necessary clearly to keep in mind the main points of the Eleusinian myth which was developed to explain and justify the cult rites. One must avoid any suggestion that there was one common mystery religion. This triumph may be attributed in part to the fact that Christianity took from its opponents their own weapons, and used them: the better elements of the mystery religions were transferred to the new religion. However, in the conclusion I will attempt to give those fundamental aspects, characteristic of all the cults, that greatly influenced Christianity. 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. 384 pages, Paperback. He too had God for his father. The New Testament gives evidence of at least four styles of Christian worship: temple worship (Acts 2:46), synagogue worship (Acts 16:13, 16), a fellowship meal concluded by the Lord's Supper (1 . 5. But with the coming of spring the life of nature revived again, for the sorrowing mother had received her daughter back with rejoicing. 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. He hears all and sees all: none can deceive him.\[Footnote:] Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra, pp. It is stated with sufficient elaboration in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Martin Luther King Jr. titled " The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity. 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. Loisy, Alfred. In order to give a comprehensive picture of this subject, I will discuss Four {Five} of the most popular of these religions separately, rather than to view them en masse as a single great religious system. During the rise of Christianity in the first century A.D. also were the widespread cults throughout each Mediterranean region known as the mystery religions. Interpretation in Platonic concepts was also the means by which the Judeo-Christian set of creeds was thoroughly assimilated to Greek ideas by the early Christian thinkers Clement of Alexandria and Origen. 3. In winter vegetable life was dead while Demeter, the giver of life, grieved for the loss of her daughter. The Apostles Creed and Athanasian Creed say that between the Friday night and the Sunday morning Jesus was in Hell or Hades; It has no scriptural foundation except in the ambiguous words of the First Epistle of Peter; it did not appear in the Church as a tenet of Christianity until late in the Fourth Century., 19. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, p. 137: Mithra was born from a rock, as shown in Mithraic sculptures, being sometimes termed the god out of the rock, and his worship was always conducted in a cave; and the general belief in the early Church that Jesus was born in a cave is a direct instance of the taking over of Mithraic ideas. Now it seems that the general belief of the early church that Jesus was born in a cave grows directly out of Mithraic ideas. Christianity acknowledges only one way to God (John 14:6) and places utmost importance on right doctrine (1 . 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