The later non-Greek mysteries were personal, private, and individualistic. The inner spiritual, continues ever.. 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. Willoughby quoted from Apollonius Argonautica 1.1098 ff. As is commonly known Antioch was one of the earliest seats of Christianity. In the Christian congregations of the first two centuries, the variety of rites and creeds was almost as great as in the mystery communities; few of the early Christian congregations could have been called orthodox according to later standards. 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. 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. The books that the mystery communities used in Roman times cannot possibly be compared to the New Testament. It lies in the fact that the mystery religions paved the way for the presentation of Christianity to the world of that time. Fairbanks, Greek Religion, p. 293: This religion was not blotted out by Christianity. 4243: It was also a reflection of poignant human experiences, mirroring the joys, sorrows, and hopes of mankind in face of inevitable death. 187, 188.\. Mystery. Yet they all died out within a couple of centuries of the Christian era, Gnosticism (apart from a few vestigial groups in the Near East and Europe) subsuming their heritage last. 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. See A Study of Mithraism, 13 September23 November 1949, pp. 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. On the contrary it was generally a natural and unconscious process rather than a deliberate plan of action. To make their case, they cite extensive lists of apparent similarities between . Christianity, in its earliest days, shared a good deal in common with the many "mystery religions" which became popular in the Roman Empire. Christianity emerged and grew at a time when mystery religions were popular throughout the Roman Empire. March 24th was the Day of Blood, whereon the High Priest, who himself impersonated Attis, drew blood from his arm and offered it up in place of the blood of a human sacrifice, thus, as it were, sacrificing himself, a fact which recalls to mind the words in the Epistle to the Hebrews: Christ being come an High Priest neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood obtained eternal redemption for us. That night the priests went to the tomb and found it illuminated from within, and it was then discovered to be empty, the god having risen on the third day from the dead; and on the 25th the resurrection was celebrated with great rejoicings, a sacramental meal of some kind being taken, and initiates being baptised with blood, whereby their sins were washed away and they were said to be born again., 14. 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. 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. The other gods pleaded with her to relent but she refused to do so until Persephone was restored to her. Various writers, pagan and Christian, gave different versions of the Cybele-Attis myth. The specific variations in all these diverse statements do not concern us, for certain significant elements were common to all the various versions., 11. Here we see how Mary gradually came to take the place of the goddess.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. At the same time, the . Mystery religions were seen as more vibrant than the more . Mystery Religions and Christianity . Bottom line: They believe that the early Church borrowed heavily from pagan deities already in existence at the time of Jesus. 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. The mystery religions were syncretistic, which means followers could incorporate beliefs from other religions into their own set of views. Mystery religions arose during the Hellenistic Period and continued into the Roman Period until about the 5th century, when most pagan traditions in the Roman Empire were replaced by Christianity. [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. Download The Mysteries of Mithras Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle. 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. So through experience, knowledge, as through other forms, the outer manifestations of religion change. During the first semester of his second year at Crozer, King wrote this paper for Enslin's course on Greek religion. Thus, the religions had a common conceptual framework. It was suppressed by the Christians sometime in the latter part of the fourth century a.d.; but its collapse seems to have been due to the fact that by that time many of its doctrines and practices had been adopted by the church, so that it was practically absorbed by its rival.31, Originally Mithra was one of the lesser gods of the ancient Persian pantheon, but at the time of Christ he had come to be co-equal with Ahura Mazda, the Supreme Being.32 He possessed many attributes, the most important being his office of defender of truth and all good things. 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.) 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. When Julian the Apostate, Roman emperor from ad 361 to 363, tried to reestablish pagan worship, he found allies at Rome and Alexandria. (3) All offered mystical cleansing from sin. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. This celebration was held annually from March 22nd to 25th.\[Footnote:] Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, p. 166.\ The influence of this religion on Christianity is shown by the fact that in Phrygia, Gaul, Italy, and other countries where Attis-worship was powerful, the Christians adapted the actual date, March 25th, as the anniversary of our Lords passion.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 199\12, Again we may notice that at this same Attis festival on March 22nd, an effigy of the god was fastened to the trunk of a pine tree, Attis thus being slain and hanged on a tree. This effigy was later buried in a tomb. Clayborne Carson, Ralph Luker, and Penny A. Russell, eds. I learned that as an artistic writer who did a doctorate in philosophy. Martin Luther King Jr. titled " The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity. The origin of this cult is obscure and uncertain. The mysteries declined quickly when the emperor Constantine raised Christianity to the status of the state religion. That is essential. 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. Mithraism, a sect of Zoroastrianism characterized by the worship of Mithra as the defender of the truth, was a monotheistic mystery religion prevalent in the Roman empire before the acceptance of Christianity in the fourth century. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. 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. Whatever the religious doctrines of the Masonic sect it is plain that they do not embrace the central Christian . This makes it sound as if they were unified, sharing common beliefs that . 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 hypothesis of a mutual dependence has been proposed by scholarsespecially a dependence of Christianity upon the mysteriesbut such theories have been discarded. 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. 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. Both the Apostles Creed and the Athanasian {Creed} say that between the Friday night and Sunday morning Jesus was in Hades. Conservative Evangelical Christians care about their brand . The greatest influence of the mystery religions on Christianity lies in a different direction from that of doctrine and ritual. In his pagan period he wrote hymns that closely follow the fire theology of the Chaldean Oracles; later he wrote hymns to Christ. He had left behind the secret whereby men could achieve the goal with him.\[Footnote:] Enslin, op. The mysteries of human life and death are vividly enacted by Demeter, Persephone, and Hades. 5. Cypress Hall D, 466 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305-4146 Harold R. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929), p. 114: Of these Oriental mystery religions the first to invade the west was the cult of the Great Mother of the Gods, 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., 8. The theology of the mysteries was developed to a far lesser degree than the Christian theology. Thus, under identical conditions, new forms of religious communities sprang from similar roots. Others saw it as an out-growth from Jewish precedents. The Mystery Religions form a link between the inclusive pantheon of the Greeks and the more modern exclusive religions of today. For an instance, the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist have been mentioned as rites, which were preactice {practiced} by both Christians and pagans. Paris, 1930 . The preceding four sentences are similar to a passage in A Study of Mithraism, p. 224 in this volume. But it was this very date that the festival of Dianna or Artemis was celebrated, with whom Isis was identified. 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