These two great Egyptian deities, whose worship passed into Europe, were revered not only in Rome but in many other centers where Christian communities were growing up. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like The dependency fallacy understands that Christianity borrowed the substance of the mystery religions and turned this into a new religion., Several contemporary scholars do see dependency between Christianity and pagan religions, but it is a reversed dependency, meaning that the pagan religions borrowed from Christianity (at least . 4. There can hardly be any doubt that the myths of Isis had a direct bearing on the elevation of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to the lofty position that she holds in Roman Catholic theology. 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. They were themselves, in verying degrees, imperfect examples of the Galilean cult which was to replace them. It is at this point that we are able to see why knowledge of the Mystery religions is important for any serious study of the history of Christianity. 121122: In Rome the festival of his death and resurrection was annually held from March 22nd to 25th; and the connection of this religion with Christianity is shown by the fact that in Phrygia, Gaul, Italy, and other countries where Attis-worship was powerful, the Christians adopted the actual date, March 25th, as the anniversary of our Lords passion., 13. According to this view, Christianity began as a Jewish adaptation of Greek mystery . He too had found the road to heaven by his suffering and resurrection. This article covers relationship between Neoplatonism And Christianity.. Neoplatonism was a major influence on Christian theology throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in the West. 136137: Tarsus, the home of St. Paul, was one of the great centres of his worship, being the chief city of the Cilicians; and, as will presently appear, there is a decided tinge of Mithraism in the Epistles and Gospels. 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 three actors of the Eleusinian tragedy, enacted the mystery of human life and death. In fact, the comparison became so evident that many believed the Christian movement itself became a mystery cult. 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.. The ideas of Greek philosophy penetrated everywhere in this society. On March 24th, known as the Day of Blood, the High Priest, impersonating Attic, drew blood from him arm and offered it up in place of the blood of a human sacrifice, thus, as it were, sacrificing himself. One must avoid any suggestion that there was one common mystery religion. On the contrary, whatever real life it had was perpetuated in Christianity, since the conquering religion had adopted many of its forms and some of the old content in these forms., 31. Paris, 1930 . It is very common to find claims that Christianity was a mystery religion, similar to the worship of Dionysus, Isis, Orpheus, etc. They were characterized by elaborate orgiastic rituals, secret knowledge, and an emphasis on a direct personal . In 391, however, the Serapeum at Alexandria was demolished, and in 394 the opposition of the Roman aristocracy was crushed in battle at the Frigidus River (now called the Vipacco River in Italy and the Vipava in Slovenia). " King wrote . CULT OF CYBELE. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. It is an interpretation of human history that breeds by Bart D. Ehrman. "Concerning the relationship between the mystery cults and Christianity, scholarly opinion has varied. 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. The similarities must rather be explained by parallel developments from similar origins. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. In theology the differences between early Christians, Gnostics (membersoften Christianof dualistic sects of the 2nd century ad), and pagan Hermetists were slight. 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 . The words of St. Paul, They drank of that spiritual rock and that rock was Christ are borrowed from the Mithraic scriptures., 36. The later non-Greek mysteries were personal, private, and individualistic. All this goes to show how important Mithraism was in ancient times. Christianity originated during the time of the Roman Empire, which was also the time at which the mysteries reached their height of popularity. However when we come to the idea of Jesus decent into hell it seems that we have a direct borrow from the Adonis religion, and in fact from other religions also. 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. 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. Various writers gave different Versions of the Cybele-Attis myth. It is stated with sufficient elaboration in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. While Herodotus fails to give a date for this festival, Plutarch says that it lasted four days, giving the date as the seventeenth day of the Egyptian month Hathor, which, according to the Alexandrian claendar used by him, corresponded to November 13th.\[Footnote:] Frazer, op. This makes it sound as if they were unified, sharing common beliefs that . Meanwhile the coffin was washed up on the Syrian coast, and became miraculously lodged in the trunk of a tree. After his death, the pagan opposition to Christianity continued for one more generation. During the centuries leading up to the birth of Christianity, the Pagan Mystery religion, often known simply as the 'Mysteries', had spread throughout the ancient Mediterranean.Many of the greatest figures of the Pagan world were initiated into these Mysteries, and regarded them as the very source of civilisation. Data was gathered from books . 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. These scholars made two errors here. 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. Now this idea has no scriptural foundation except in those difficult passages in the First Epistle of Peter\[Footnote:] I Peter 3:194:6.\ which many scholars have designated as the most ambiguous passages of the New Testament. 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. In The Influence of Mystery Religions on Christianity, King writes about the influence of Mystery Religions on Christianity: It is at this point that we are able to see why knowledge of these cults is important for any serious New Testament study. They felt at first that these competitors were not worthy of consideration, and few references to them are found in Christian literature. It, Christianity, is the expression of the longing of people for light, truth, salvation, security. It can be shown that the very earliest practices of Christianity coincided with popular mystery cults on many levels. It was a nature myth, a vivid depiction of the action of life in the vegetable world with the changing of the seasons. It is because of this crusading spirit and its superb power of adaptability that Christianityahs {has} been able to survive. After recovering Osiris dismembered body, Isis restored him to life and installed him as King in the nether world; meanwhile Horus, having grown to manhood, reigned on earth, later becoming the third person of this great Egyptian trinity.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. 129130: There were two aspects of Isis which commended themselves particularly to her worshippers: firstly, that of the lady of sorrows, weeping for the dead Osiris, and, secondly, that of the divine mother, nursing her infant son, Horus. There is more to the story before the flood, but as things started new after the flood, we will start from this point. 2d ed. familiar with a type of religion known as Mystery-Religions which changed the religious outlook of the Western world, and which are operative in European civilization and in the Christian Church to this day. In the first century of the Christian era the Eleusinian mystery cult was more favorable known than any of the cults of Greece.24 Its fame and popularity was largely due to the connexion of Eleusis with Athens. The religious art of the Christians continued the pagan art of the preceding generations. (Interesting parallels between the mystery faiths and early Christianity are discussed, without either apology or venom, but with an avid interest.) Some held that the sacrament was instituted by Jesus himself. There is no archaeological evidence that mystery religions were in Palestine in the first century A.D. Jews and early Christians loathed syncretism with other religions. 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. Forces have been known to delay trends but very few have stopped them. 23: In the Avesta, Mithra is the genius of the celestial light. Each following {year} there was a great festival in commemoration of his resurrection, and the very words, The Lord is risen, were probable used. 9. Loisy, Alfred. Thus, the religions had a common conceptual framework. Esoteric Christianity teaches that Christianity is a mystery religion and that only a small minority of people ever achieve the enlightenment necessary to crack the arcane teachings of the Bible and truly know God. Because these religions believed there was just one god, they prohibited worshiping other gods. Around these two divinities there grew up a confused tangle of myths in explanation of their cult rites. Mithraism became the most popular and influential of the many mystery religions 2 that existed in the Roman Empire at the time that Christianity began, and was the major The preceding two sentences are similar to a passage in A Study of Mithraism, p. 224 in this volume. Mystery Religion-Basic Traits. Even Christian apologist had to admit that fact. Bottom line: They believe that the early Church borrowed heavily from pagan deities already in existence at the time of Jesus. 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. Greek life was characterized by such things as democratic institutions, seafaring, gymnasium and athletic games, theatre, and philosophy. The answer is "yes" - and also "no". cit., p. 125.\23, The Influence Of The Greater Mysteries At Eleusis. "The correspondences between Christianity and the other mystery religions of antiquity are perhaps more startling than the differences. The basic Christian objection to Freemasonry is that the Craft constitutes a religious sect in opposition to the revealed truths of the Gospel. 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. Genres Religion HistoryNonfictionThe World. Is Christianity the crowning achievement in the development of religious thought or will there be another religion more advanced? The cult of rulers in the manner of the imperial mysteries was impossible in Jewish and Christian worship. Please contact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. atlicensing@i-p-m.comor 404 526-8968. Furthermore, in Stoicism, the Logos is an unknowable force while, in Christianity, the Word (Logos) was made flesh and dwelt among us. Initiation into a mystery religion. 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. It seems instead to have been carried over from Jewish background and modified by the new ideas and beliefs of the Christians. 213214 in this volume. 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. 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. Christianity, however, [strikeout illegible] survived because it appeared to be the result of a trend in the social order or in the historical cycle of the human race. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, pp. They were not self-sufficient sects . 39. The Christian representations of the Madonna and child are clearly the continuation of the representations of Isis and her son suckling her breast. In the former capacity she was identified with the great mother-goddess, Demeter, whose mourning for Persephone was the main feature in the Eleusinian mysteries; In her aspect as the mother of Horus, Isis was represented in tens of thousands of statuettes and paintings, holding the divine child in her arms; and when Christianity triumphed these paintings and figures became those of the Madonna and Child without any break in continuity: no archaeologist, in fact, can now tell whether some of these objects represent the one or the other., 23. Greco-Roman mysteries. The existence of this atmosphere was vitally important in the development and eventual triumph of Christianity. 115116: Now one of the earliest seats of Christianity was Antioch; but in that city there was celebrated each year the death and resurrection of the god Tammuz or Adonis, This faith had always exerted its influence on Jewish thought, and, indeed, the prophet Ezekiel had found it necessary to scold the women of Jerusalem for weeping for the dead Tammuz at the very gate of the Temple; while, in the end, the place at Bethlehem selected by the early Christians as the scene of the birth of Jesus (for want to [sic] any knowledge as to where the event had really occurred) was none other than an early shrine of this pagan god, as St. Jerome was horrified to discovera fact which shows that Tammuz or Adonis ultimately became confused in mens minds with Jesus Christ., 16. 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. Mystery religions, as a rule, can be traced back to tribal origins, Christianity to a historical person. Esoteric . Frickel, J. Hellenistische Erl sung in christlicher Deutung. The books that the mystery communities used in Roman times cannot possibly be compared to the New Testament. the hellenistic mystery religion decisively in Alexandria and contributed to its development. MLKP, MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass. He thinks that there were four sets of ideas which the Jews brought with them to Alexandria: 1) the idea of a divine child, born by a virgin, raised in the manner of a son of god, who was also to bring in the new age; It is celebrated annually on August 13th. People were free to move from one country to another and became cosmopolitan. This faith had always exerted its influence on Jewish thought, so much so that the prophet Ezekiel\[Footnote:] Ezekiel 8:14.\ found it necessary to scold the women of Jerusalem for weeping for the dead Tammuz (Adonis) at the very gate of the temple. It is inevitable when a new religion comes to exist side by side with a group of religions, from which it is continually detaching members, introducing them into its own midst with the practices of their original religions impressed upon their minds, that this new religion should tend to assimilate with the assimilation of their members, some of the elements of these existing religions. The preceding two sentences are similar to a passage in A Study of Mithraism, p. 211 in this volume. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, p. 116: This god was believed to have suffered a cruel death, to have descended into Hell or Hades, to have risen again, and to have ascended into Heaven; and at his festival, as held in various lands, his death was bewailed, an effigy of his dead body was prepared for burial by being washed with water and anointed, and, on the next day, his resurrection was commemorated with great rejoicing, the very words The Lord is risen probably being used. (Pagan Regeneration, p. 115). 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. However, in the conclusion I will attempt to give those fundamental aspects, characteristic of all the cults, that greatly influenced Christianity. Although the mystery religions did move towards advancing a solar god above all the others, this change began after 100 A.D., too late to impact the theology of the New Testament. During the first semester of his second year at Crozer, King wrote this paper for Enslin's course on Greek religion. It is well-nigh impossible to . 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 winter, all plants die, this represents the period of Demeters grief over her daughter. cit., p. 257.\ Other Egyptian records speak of another feast in honour of all the dead, when such lamps were lit, which was held about November 8th.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 258.\20, It is interesting to note that the Christian feast of all Souls, in honor of the dead, likewise falls at the beginning of November; and in many countries lamps and candles are burned all night on that occassion. The Mysteries of Mithras presents a revival of this ancient Roman mystery religion, popular from the late second century B.C. 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. The property of the pagan gods was confiscated, and the temples were destroyed. 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