This universal law is expecially true of religion. 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. Willoughby quoted from Apollonius Argonautica 1.1098 ff. It's one of the things that made Christianity quite distinct in the ancient world. 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. 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 . He had left behind the secret whereby men could achieve the goal with him.\[Footnote:] Enslin, op. 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. It is also significant to know that Roman tolerance had favoured this great syncretism of religious ideas. 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. Frickel, J. Hellenistische Erl sung in christlicher Deutung. In connection with the temple, she established certain ceremonies and rites for her worship. P: (650) 723-2092 | F: (650) 723-2093 | kinginstitute@stanford.edu| Campus Map. Esoteric . Forces have been known to delay trends but very few have stopped them. 5. Freedom's Ring: King's "I Have a Dream" Speech, The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume I: Called to Serve, January 1929-June 1951. 9.1K Followers. Since Christianity was a mystery religion that demanded initiation to participate in religious practices, Christian architecture put greater emphasis on the interior. Now when Christianity triumphed we find that these same paintings and figures became those of the Madonna and child with little or no difference.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 123\ In fact archaeologists are often left in confusion in attempting to distinguish the one from the other.22, It is also interesting to note that in the second century a story began to spread stating that Mary had been miraculously carried to Heaven by Jesus and His angels.\[Footnote:] The spreading of this story has been attributed to Melito, Bishop of Sardis.\ In the sixth century a festival came to be celebrated around this event known as the festival of Assumption, and it is now one of the greatest feasts of Roman Catholicism. 213214 in this volume. He too had found the road to heaven by his suffering and resurrection. It should also be noted that early Christianity was an exclusivistic religion while the mystery cults were not. To make their case, they cite extensive lists of apparent similarities between . 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 . Dr Arnold's researchers have reaffirmed the earlier conclusions of Martin Dibelius and Sir William Ramsay that the key term embateuo in the phrase 'entering the things he had seen' (2:18) was a technical term for the second stage of a mystery initiation, in which a person was led through a series of . 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 purity demanded in the worship of Sol and in the Chaldean fire rites was similar to Christian standards. The later non-Greek mysteries were personal, private, and individualistic. The books that the mystery communities used in Roman times cannot possibly be compared to the New Testament. A mystery religion is any religion with an arcanum, or body of secret wisdom. The preceding three paragraphs are similar to a passage in Kings earlier paper, A Study of Mithraism, p. 211 in this volume. During the first two or three decades of the twentieth century, it was thought that the mystery religions constituted a unity based on a common 'mystery theolgoy ,' and that Christianity was simply one of them, or at most, a distinct religion . 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 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. In fact the idea did not appear in the church as a tenet of Christianity until late in the Fourth Century.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. 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. 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 . 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. 4. 116117: With [the Great Mother] was associated a hero-divinity called Attis who personified the life of the vegetable world particularly. Around these two divinities, the Great Mother and the god of vegetation, there grew up a confused tangle of myths in explanation of their cult rites. Reprinted as The Mystery-Religions: A Study in the Religious Background of Early Christianity (New York, 1975). There are also great differences between Christianity and the mysteries. Here we see how Mary gradually came to take the place of the goddess.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. 6 Mithraism. 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. King also proposes that the mystery religions had an even greater influence by preparing the people to understand Christianity. Mystery religions were seen as more vibrant than the more stale state religions. All this goes to show how important Mithraism was in ancient times. In this earlier stage, Isis had a husband named Osiris. Never stop with the external, which may seem like borrowing, but recognize there is the perennial struggle for truth, fuller life itself. The religions that Rome had the most problems with were monotheisticJudaism and Christianity. 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, 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. The similarity of the religious vocabulary is also great. Art redeems. Bottom line: They believe that the early Church borrowed heavily from pagan deities already in existence at the time of Jesus. How do we determine conjectured information? It should also be noted that early Christianity was an exclusivistic religion while the mystery cults were not. 10. 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. Mystery cults continue to vex scholars because the surviving evidence is problematic, comprising a few written sources, mostly late in date, and often with questionable aims and biases. The eucharist, likewise through similar in some respects to the communion meal of Mithraism, was not a rite borrowed from it. Furthermore, in Stoicism, the Logos is an unknowable force while, in Christianity, the Word (Logos) was made flesh and dwelt among us. 6. Beliefs of the religion which are public knowledge but cannot be easily explained by normal rational or scientific means. The pagan cults and rites, for example, those of Eleusis, Attis, Osiris, Cybele, and Mithra (see mystery religions, greco-oriental). The origin of this cult is obscure and uncertain. Babylon Mystery Religion is a detailed Biblical and historical account of how, when, why, and where ancient paganism was mixed with Christianity. Mystery Religions and Christianity . 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. Cypress Hall D, 466 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305-4146 4243: It was also a reflection of poignant human experiences, mirroring the joys, sorrows, and hopes of mankind in face of inevitable death. Christianity triumphed over these mystery religions after long conflict. Selected Answer: True. The preceding paragraph is similar to passages in two of Kings earlier papers: Light on the Old Testament from the Ancient Near East, 14 September24 November 1948, p. 163 in this volume; A Study of Mithraism, p. 212 in this volume. Many views, while passing out of paganism into Christianity were given a more profound and spiritual meaning by Christians, yet we must be indebted to the source. He too had God for his father. 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. So through experience, knowledge, as through other forms, the outer manifestations of religion change. Thus, the religions had a common conceptual framework. 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. See A Study of Mithraism, 13 September23 November 1949, pp. #516 in History of Religions. Even Christian apologist had to admit that fact. Fairbanks, Greek Religion, p. 293: This religion was not blotted out by Christianity. Was Christianity Originally a Mystery Religion? It is evident that in Rome there was a festival celebrating the death and resurrection of Attis. Initiation into a mystery religion. 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. 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. 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.. (4) All promised a happy future life for the faithful.\[Footnote:] Enslin, Christian Beginnings, pp. As is commonly known Antioch was one of the earliest seats of Christianity. The present study represents an attempt to provide a survey of the influence of the mystery religions on Christianity. A query from Stephanie on the Ethical Witches list in Austin turned up this paper by Rev. The mystery religions exerted some influence on the thinkers of the Middle Ages and the philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. 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. 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. The conditions of that era made it possible for these religions to sweep like a tidal wave over the ancient world. The three actors of the Eleusinian tragedy, enacted the mystery of human life and death. "The correspondences between Christianity and the other mystery religions of antiquity are perhaps more startling than the differences. In fact, the comparison became so evident that many believed the Christian movement itself became a mystery cult. The property of the pagan gods was confiscated, and the temples were destroyed. The mysteries declined quickly when the emperor Constantine raised Christianity to the status of the state religion. The answer is "yes" - and also "no". Item Weight : 14.3 ounces. The Christian representations of the Madonna and child are clearly the continuation of the representations of Isis and her son suckling her breast. The greatest influence of the mystery religions on Christianity lies in a different direction from that of doctrine and ritual. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. They prepared the people mentally and emotionally to understand the type of religion which Christianity represented. 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. Both the Apostles Creed and the Athanasian {Creed} say that between the Friday night and Sunday morning Jesus was in Hades. King wrote this paper for the course Development of Christian Ideas, taught by Davis. 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. The Mystery Religions form a link between the inclusive pantheon of the Greeks and the more modern exclusive religions of today. 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 . But with the coming of spring the life of nature revived again, for the sorrowing mother had received her daughter back with rejoicing. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, p. 114: She was the Great Mother not only of all the gods, but of all men as well.. 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. 9:11, 12.\ Now to get back to the festival. Such designations of our Lord as the Dayspring from on High, The Light, the Sun of Righteousness, and similar expressions seem to come directly from Mithraic influence.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. Demeter, in her joy at the restoration of her lost daughter, allowed the crops to grow once more and institute in honor of the event the Eleusinian mysteries which gave to mortals the assurance of a happy future life.26, The significance of this story is immediately clear. 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. 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. 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. Others saw it as an out-growth from Jewish precedents. Men began to die for the lack of food while the sacrifices to the gods decreased in number because the animals were dying out. The ideas of Greek philosophy penetrated everywhere in this society. It is improbable, however, that either of these were introduced into Christian practices by association with the mystery cults. 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 the spring, those who had shared Demeters grief for the loss of her daughter welcomed the return of Persephone with all the joy that the returning life of vegetation might kindle. ISBN-10 : 0486231240. 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. 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. The date of Christmas was purposely fixed on December 25 to push into the background the great festival of the sun god, and Epiphany on January 6 to supplant an Egyptian festival of the same day. Each year nature passed through the cycle of apparent death and resurrection. Les myst res pa ens et le myst re chr tiens. Christianity emerged and grew at a time when mystery religions were popular throughout the Roman Empire. 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. ISBN-13 : 978-0486231242. 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. Conservative Evangelical Christians care about their brand . However, in the conclusion I will attempt to give those fundamental aspects, characteristic of all the cults, that greatly influenced Christianity. 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. 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. During the first semester of his second year at Crozer, King wrote this paper for Enslin's course on Greek religion. Sacred mysteries are the areas of supernatural phenomena associated with a divinity or a religious belief and praxis.Sacred mysteries may be either: Religious beliefs, rituals or practices which are kept secret from the uninitiated. : Putnam, 1928), p. 121: Attis was the Good Shepherd, the son of Cybele, the Great Mother, or, alternatively, of the Virgin Nana, who conceived him without union with mortal man, as in the story of the Virgin Mary., 12. Mystery religions, mystery cults, sacred mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious schools of the Greco-Roman world for which participation was reserved to initiates (mystai). 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. 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. 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. Here are my top five reasons mystery religions did not influence Christianity . The similarities must rather be explained by parallel developments from similar origins. The mother, frenzied with grief, rushed about the earth for nine days in search for her lost daughter,25 As a result of her wandering, she came to Eleusis where she was seen, although not recognized, by the four daughters of Kekeas sitting near a public well called the Fountain of Maidenhood. 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. 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. 2d ed. 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. Every year nature passes through a cycle of apparent death and resurrection. 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. 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. 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. Christianity acknowledges only one way to God (John 14:6) and places utmost importance on right doctrine (1 . 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.) 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. 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. Their members refused to make offerings to Roman gods or take part in Roman religious festivals, which Rome considered a matter of showing loyalty. The doctrine is almost identical. it has been suggested that Christianity had its origin in a mystery of initiates. Mystery. King repeats material from an earlier paper, A Study of Mithraism, but he extends the discussion here to the influence of other mystery religions.1 Davis gave the essay an A, stating: This is very good and I am glad to have your conclusion. It is very common to find claims that Christianity was a mystery religion, similar to the worship of Dionysus, Isis, Orpheus, etc. Esoteric Christianity. Paperback : 384 pages. As for my characterization of Mormonism, it depends on the definition. 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. 211225 in this volume. The people of that age were eager and zealous in their search for religious experience. (3) Baptism and a communion meal were important parts of the ritual of both groups. 37. 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. 1. 6. We should try to see the dark comedy in all things. They originated in tribal ceremonies that were performed by primitive peoples in many parts of the world. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. 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. 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. The ideas of Greek philosophy penetrated everywhere in this earlier stage, Isis had a common framework! For her worship that of doctrine and ritual purity demanded in the Chaldean fire rites was similar to Christian.... Chr tiens Athanasian { Creed } say that between the Friday night and morning! It must also be noted that early Christianity was an exclusivistic religion while mystery... That age were eager and zealous in their search for religious experience proposes that the mystery religions were as., or body of secret wisdom thought in that age were eager zealous! 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