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. The cult of Isis became a mystery religion only after Ptolemy the . 10. After his death, the pagan opposition to Christianity continued for one more generation. 5. The mystery religion was very narrow in scope, only involving select groups of people therefore not gaining support from the masses.Some people believe that Christianity and Judaism have many parallels to the mystery cults in terms of terminology (salvation, resurrection, eternal life) and in the particulars of the performance of initiation and ritual. 9:11, 12.\ Now to get back to the festival. 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 . Followers of Mithra became less common after . Through the summer the mother abundantly maintained the life of nature until autumn, when again her daughter returned to the underworld and earth became desolate once more., 28. It was believed that this god suffered a cruel death, after which he descended into hell, rose again, and then ascended into Heaven. Each year nature passed through the cycle of apparent death and resurrection. Meanwhile the coffin was washed up on the Syrian coast, and became miraculously lodged in the trunk of a tree. A query from Stephanie on the Ethical Witches list in Austin turned up this paper by Rev. 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. All this goes to show how important Mithraism was in ancient times. Mystery religions were seen as more vibrant than the more stale state religions. And today similar experiences are represented by Greek Christians. CULT OF CYBELE. The earlier Greek mystery religions were state religions in the sense that they attained the status of a public or civil cult and served a national or public function. Never stop with the external, which may seem like borrowing, but recognize there is the perennial struggle for truth, fuller life itself. 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. There are also great differences between Christianity and the mysteries. #1,225 in History of Christianity (Books) the hellenistic mystery religion decisively in Alexandria and contributed to its development. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Easter ceremonies rivalled the pagan spring festivals. It is because of this crusading spirit and its superb power of adaptability that Christianityahs {has} been able to survive. Art redeems. They were characterized by elaborate orgiastic rituals, secret knowledge, and an emphasis on a direct personal . 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. Church leaders talked about "initiations, passwords, and mysteries" using exactly the same . The Christian theologian Origen wrote in the 3rd century that it was part of the divine plan that Christ was born under the emperor Augustus: the whole Mediterranean world was united by the Romans, and the conditions for missionary work were more favourable than ever before. (4) All promised a happy future life for the faithful.\[Footnote:] Enslin, Christian Beginnings, pp. This effigy was later buried in a tomb. 211225 in this volume. 37. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. Best Sellers Rank: #329,817 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books) #317 in General History of Religion. 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.. Willoughby quoted from Apollonius Argonautica 1.1098 ff. In fact the idea did not appear in the church as a tenet of Christianity until late in the Fourth Century.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. The answer is "yes" - and also "no". He had left behind the secret whereby men could achieve the goal with him.\[Footnote:] Enslin, op. The people of Cyrene selected him as the most able man of the city to be their bishop, and he was able to accept the election without sacrificing his intellectual honesty. Martin Luther King Jr. titled "The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity."King wrote it around the . or 404 526-8968. Thus the designations of our Lord as the Dayspring from on High, the Light, the Sun of Righteousness, and similar expressions, are borrowed from or related to Mithraic phraseology., 35. During the first semester of his second year at Crozer, King wrote this paper for Enslin's course on Greek religion. 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. To show the beginning of a new era, the capital of the empire was transferred to the new Christian city of Constantinople. 39. If a mystery religion is one in which participation is "reserved to initiates," then yes, unquestionably so. There seems little doubt that this custom was identical with the Egyptian festival. Hardcover, 335 pages. 126127: But the Christian feast of All Souls, in honour of the dead, likewise falls at the beginning of November; and in many countries lamps and candles are burnt all night on that occasion. there seems little doubt that this custom was identical with the Egyptian festival. the festival of All Saints, which is held one day before that of All Souls and which was first recognised by the Church in a.d. 835, is undoubtedly identical with it in origin. Each following {year} there was a great festival in commemoration of his resurrection, and the very words, The Lord is risen, were probable used. There are no parallels in Christianity to the sexual rites in the Dionysiac and Isiac religion, with the exception of a few aberrant Gnostic communities. It is improbable, however, that either of these were introduced into Christian practices by association with the mystery cults. 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. The existence of this atmosphere was vitally important in the development and eventual triumph of Christianity. This was accomplished, not by any slavish process of imitation, but by {a} serious attempt to meet better the specific religious needs that the mysteries had awakened and nourished, and by phrasing religious assurances more convincingly in similar terminology.\[Footnote:] Case, The Mystery Religions, The Encyclopedia of Religion, Edited by Vergilius Ferm, pp. Download The Mysteries of Mithras Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle. Supporters of the theory incorrectly assume that Christianity borrowed many of its ideas from the mystery religions, but the evidence reveals it was actually the other way around. Only remnants of the mystery doctrines, amalgamated with Platonism, were transmitted by a few philosophers and individualists to the religious thinkers of the Byzantine Empire. 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 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. (Interesting parallels between the mystery faiths and early Christianity are discussed, without either apology or venom, but with an avid interest.) The doctrinal similarity is exemplified in the case of the pagan writer and philosopher Synesius. 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. Leiden, 1984. 9.1K Followers. 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. Initiation into a mystery religion. The Christian representations of the Madonna and child are clearly the continuation of the representations of Isis and her son suckling her breast. 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. In the latter capacity Isis was represented in tens of thousands of statuettes and paintings, holding the divine child in her arms. How do we determine conjectured information? 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. Men began to die for the lack of food while the sacrifices to the gods decreased in number because the animals were dying out. First, they treated the mystery religions as if they were just one religion. 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. 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. The other gods pleaded with her to relent but she refused to do so until Persephone was restored to her. These are stated with sufficient elaboration in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, According to the story, Persephone, was stolen by Pluto and carried off to the underworld to be his bride. The mother, frenzied with grief, rushed about the earth for nine days., 26. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. Please contact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. [email protected] 404 526-8968. He emerges from the rocky summits of eastern mountains at dawn, and goes through heaven with a team of four white horses; when the night falls he still illumines the surface of the earth, ever walking, ever watchful. He is not sun or moon or any star, but a spirit of light, ever wakeful, watching with a hundred eyes. 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. In its older Egyptian version, which was not a mystery religion, Isis was regarded as the goddess of heaven, earth, the sea, and the unseen world below. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, p. 145: The Hebrew Sabbath having been abolished by Christians, the Church made a sacred day of Sunday, partly because it was the day of the resurrection, but largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance. 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. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. He too had God for his father. Mystery. It is very common to find claims that Christianity was a mystery religion, similar to the worship of Dionysus, Isis, Orpheus, etc. In the Avesta,\[Footnote:] This is the sacred book of the religion of Iran.\ Mithra is represented as the genius of celestial light. 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. But although baptism did not originate with the Christians, still it was not copied from the pagans. Associate Professor of New Testament Interpretation, University of Chicago Author of "The Historicity of Jesus" "That he might gather together in one all things in Christ." That is Paul's inter-pretation of God's cosmic plan. The similarities must rather be explained by parallel developments from similar origins. 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 . 23: In the Avesta, Mithra is the genius of the celestial light. 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. Beliefs of the religion which are public knowledge but cannot be easily explained by normal rational or scientific means. (3) Baptism and a communion meal were important parts of the ritual of both groups. The purity demanded in the worship of Sol and in the Chaldean fire rites was similar to Christian standards. Thus, the religions had a common conceptual framework. They covered an enormous range, and manifested a great diversity in character and outlook, from Orphism to Gnosticism, from the orgies of the Cabira to the fervours of the Hermetic contemplative.\[Footnote:] Angus, The Mystery Religions and Christianity, p. vii.\2 However it is to be noticed that these Mysteries possessed many fundamental likenesses; (1) All held that the initiate shared in symbolic (sacramental) fashion the experiences of the god. The mystery religions adopted many expressions from these domains: they spoke of the assembly (ekklsia) of the mystai; the voyage of life; the ship, the anchor, and the port of religion; and the wreath of the initiate; life was a stage and man the actor. mystery religion, any of various secret cults of the Greco-Roman world that offered to individuals religious experiences not provided by the official public religions. In his pagan period he wrote hymns that closely follow the fire theology of the Chaldean Oracles; later he wrote hymns to Christ. The cult of rulers in the manner of the imperial mysteries was impossible in Jewish and Christian worship. ISBN-10 : 0486231240. It should also be noted that early Christianity was an exclusivistic religion while the mystery cults were not. 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. Hydria by the Varrese Painter (c. 340 BC) depicting Eleusinian scenes. 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. 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. The books that the mystery communities used in Roman times cannot possibly be compared to the New Testament. With respect to the differences between Stoicism and Christianity, the former is to an extent simpler than the latter since it has no angels, demons or trinity. In this earlier stage, Isis had a husband named Osiris. In theology the differences between early Christians, Gnostics (membersoften Christianof dualistic sects of the 2nd century ad), and pagan Hermetists were slight. 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. 1. The purity demanded in the worship of Sol and in the Chaldean fire rites was similar to Christian standards. In order to understand the type of religious experience represented by this important cult, we must turn to the myth of the rape of Demeters daughter by Pluto. Christianity emerged and grew at a time when mystery religions were popular throughout the Roman Empire. Jesus was the divine Lord. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. London, 1928. 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. 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; Was Christianity Originally a Mystery Religion? 1. On the whole, early Christians were not greatly concerned about the likenesses between the Mithraic cult and their own. 135136: Originally Mithra was one of the lesser gods of the ancient Persian pantheon, but already in the time of Christ he had risen to be co-equal with, though created by, Ormuzd (Ahura-Mazda), the Supreme Being., 33. 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