Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, pp. So through experience, knowledge, as through other forms, the outer manifestations of religion change. The main characterization of this religion is the secrecy associated . Cybele, or Magna Mater, came to Greece around the 5th century BCE from . the hellenistic mystery religion decisively in Alexandria and contributed to its development. The only one they could offer was quite naive, but it was in keeping with the trends of thought in that age. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. 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; 2. It was a nature myth, a vivid depiction of the action of life in the vegetable world with the changing of the seasons. Is Christianity the crowning achievement in the development of religious thought or will there be another religion more advanced? Esoteric . 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. Christianity originated during the time of the Roman Empire, which was also the time at which the mysteries reached their height of popularity. Mystery religions, as a rule, can be traced back to tribal origins, Christianity to a historical person. However, in the conclusion I will attempt to give those fundamental aspects, characteristic of all the cults, that greatly influenced Christianity. 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 his pagan period he wrote hymns that closely follow the fire theology of the Chaldean Oracles; later he wrote hymns to Christ. The Greeks interpreted the national religions of the Greek Orient chiefly in terms of Platos philosophical and religious concepts. Each following {year} there was a great festival in commemoration of his resurrection, and the very words, The Lord is risen, were probable used. It can be shown that the very earliest practices of Christianity coincided with popular mystery cults on many levels. From the early days of Babylon and the legends surrounding Nimrod, Semiramis, and Tammuz, certain rites and rituals are traced in their various developments, thus providing clues whereby the "mystery . The baptismal ceremony in both cases (Christian and Pagan) was supposed to have the effect of identifying the initiate with his savior. In winter, all plants die, this represents the period of Demeters grief over her daughter. 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. 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. (Interesting parallels between the mystery faiths and early Christianity are discussed, without either apology or venom, but with an avid interest.) 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. 3. (4) All promised a happy future life for the faithful.\[Footnote:] Enslin, Christian Beginnings, pp. Art redeems. It is stated with sufficient elaboration in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. 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. Esoteric Christianity. Perhaps the most notable difference between Christianity and the mystery religions is Christianity's attitude towards proselytism. 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. 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. The mystery religion of Ancient Babylon is the beginning of the occult, after the great flood that destroyed man . It is well-nigh impossible to . 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. 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. Answer (1 of 7): Over the years, Christianity has often been compared to the mystery religions of ancient Greece and Rome, both by Christians wishing to emphasize the esoteric nature of their religion and by opponents of Christianity who claim that the resemblance between Christianity and mystery. Since Christianity was a mystery religion that demanded initiation to participate in religious practices, Christian architecture put greater emphasis on the interior. 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. The previous five sentences are similar to a passage in Kings earlier paper, A Study of Mithraism, pp. Mythicists confidently assert, "Christianity is nothing more than a patchwork quilt of ancient pagan and mystery religions.". cit., p. 42.\27, The myth is also an example of poignant human experience, reflecting the joys, sorrows, and hopes of mankind in the face of death. 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. The Pagan Mysteries. The Eleusinian myth told of these fundamental human experiences as well as of the life of nature., 29. It is celebrated annually on August 13th. Thus, the religions had a common conceptual framework. This coincidence had led many critics to suppose that the story of the burial and resurrection of Jesus is simply a myth borrowed from this pagan religion.17 Whether these critics are right in their interpretation or not still remains a moot question. [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. The Christian representations of the Madonna and child are clearly the continuation of the representations of Isis and her son suckling her breast. Mystery religions were seen as more vibrant than the more stale state religions. Martin Luther King Jr. titled " The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity. 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. Scholars wrongly infused Christian terms into the mystery religion. The present study represents an attempt to provide a survey of the influence of the mystery religions on Christianity. The purity demanded in the worship of Sol and in the Chaldean fire rites was similar to Christian standards. Modern reconstructions that view the mysteries as a cohesive religious phenomenon run the risk of oversimplification. 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. And today the Greeks mourn over the dead Christ, represented most realistically by a wax image borne through the streets on a bier; then at midnight before Easter Sunday the Metropolitan at Athens, the priest in smaller towns, comes out of the church announcing that Christ is risen; the light from his candle is passed to the candles of his companions and on to candles throughout the crowd, guns and firecrackers are discharged, and as they prepare to break their Lenten fast the multitude drop all restraint in the expression of wild joy., 30. The precious metal used to coin Constantines gold pieces was taken from heathen temple treasuries. Christianity, in its earliest days, shared a good deal in common with the many "mystery religions" which became popular in the Roman Empire. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. 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. 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. 125126: Herodotus states that the festival of the death and resurrection of Osiris was held in Egypt each year, though he does not give the date; Plutarch also records the annual Osirian festival, and says that it lasted four days, giving the date as the seventeenth day of the Egyptian month Hathor, which, according to the Alexandrian calendar used by him, corresponded to November 13th. 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. This article discusses mystery religions and how they influenced the New Testament and early Christianity. The similarities must rather be explained by parallel developments from similar origins. 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. For the Stoics, a relationship with the Logos is . 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. A query from Stephanie on the Ethical Witches list in Austin turned up this paper by Rev. 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. Benjamin Cain. 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. 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 . Thus, under identical conditions, new forms of religious communities sprang from similar roots. The doctrinal similarity is exemplified in the case of the pagan writer and philosopher Synesius. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, pp. The theology of the mysteries was developed to a far lesser degree than the Christian theology. Greco-Roman mysteries. The three actors of the Eleusinian tragedy, enacted the mystery of human life and death. Attis was the Good Shepard, the son of Cybele, the Great Mother, who gave birth to him without union with mortal man, as in the story of the virgin Mary.11 According to the myth, Attis died, either slain by another or by his own hand. 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. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. They felt at first that these competitors were not worthy of consideration, and few references to them are found in Christian literature. 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. They were characterized by elaborate orgiastic rituals, secret knowledge, and an emphasis on a direct personal . The greatest influence of the mystery religions on Christianity lies in a different direction from that of doctrine and ritual. It is not at all surprising in view of the wide and growing influence of these religions that when the disciples in Antioch and elsewhere preached a crucified and risen Jesus they should be regarded as the heralds of another mystery religion, and that Jesus himself should be taken for the divine Lord of the cult through whose death and resurrection salvation was to be had.3 That there were striking similarities between the developing church and these religions cannot be denied. And child are clearly the continuation of the influence of the Madonna and child are clearly the continuation the. That demanded initiation to participate in religious practices, Christian architecture put greater on. Which the mysteries as a rule, can be shown that the very earliest practices of coincided. 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