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. King also proposes that the mystery religions had an even greater influence by preparing the people to understand Christianity. : 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. Frickel, J. Hellenistische Erl sung in christlicher Deutung. 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. 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. But although baptism did not originate with the Christians, still it was not copied from the pagans. Mythicists confidently assert, "Christianity is nothing more than a patchwork quilt of ancient pagan and mystery religions.". 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. The cult of Isis originated in Egypt and went through two major stages. The mystery religions and Christianity had many similar featurese.g., a time of preparation before initiation and periods of fasting; baptism and banquets; vigils and early-morning ceremonies; pilgrimages and new names for the initiates. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, p. 117: This coincidence has, of course, led many critics to suppose that the story of the burial and resurrection of Jesus is simply a myth borrowed from this pagan religion., 18. The ideas of Greek philosophy penetrated everywhere in this society. 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 . 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.. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. The coffin, meanwhile, was washed up on the Syrian coast, and became miraculously lodged in the trunk of a tree, 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. Afterwards, however, he returned to the other world to reign for ever as King of the Dead; and meanwhile Horus, having grown to manhood, reigned on Earth, later becoming the third person of this great Egyptian trinity., 20. 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. How do we determine conjectured information? Moreover, much from the Mysteries has persisted in various modern phases of thought and practice.\[Footnote:] Angus, The Mystery Religions and Christianity, p. viii.\, This is not to say that the early Christians sat down and copied these views verbatim. 9:11, 12.\ Now to get back to the festival. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. 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. (4) The rebirth of converts was a fundamental idea in the two cults. The more crusading a religion is, the more it absorbs. Certainly Christianity has been a crusading religion from the beginning. In the latter capacity Isis was represented in tens of thousands of statuettes and paintings, holding the divine child in her arms. 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. The hypothesis of a mutual dependence has been proposed by scholarsespecially a dependence of Christianity upon the mysteriesbut such theories have been discarded. It was a nature myth, a vivid depiction of the action of life in the vegetable world with the changing of the seasons. Furthermore, in Stoicism, the Logos is an unknowable force while, in Christianity, the Word (Logos) was made flesh and dwelt among us. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. Christianity was subject to the same influences from the environment as were the other cults, and it sometimes produced the same reaction. 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 When Julian the Apostate, Roman emperor from ad 361 to 363, tried to reestablish pagan worship, he found allies at Rome and Alexandria. On the contrary many of its forms and some of its old content has been perpetuated in Christianity.30, Mithraism is perhaps the greatest example of paganisms last effort to reconcile itself to the great spiritual movement which was gaining such sturdy influence with its purer conception of God.\[Footnote:] Dill, Roman Society From Nero to Marcus Aurelius, p. 585.\ Ernest Renan, the French philosopher and Orientalist, expressed the opinion that Mithraism would have been the religion of the modern world if anything had occured to halt or destroy the growth of Christianity in the early centuries of its existence. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, p. 36: Among the cults of Greece none was more favorably known in the first century of the Christian era than the Eleusinian mysteries., 25. As the religious history of the empire is studied more closely, writes Cumont, the triumph of the church will, in our opinion, appear more and more as the culmination of a long evolution of beliefs. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. MLKP, MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass. Mystery religions were seen as more vibrant than the more stale state religions. 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. 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. The statue of the Good Shepherd carrying his lost sheep and the pastoral themes on Christian sarcophagi were also taken over from pagan craftsmanship. In fact, it's hard not to place Christianity among the mystery religions (even though Christian apologists refuse to do this). The mysteries declined quickly when the emperor Constantine raised Christianity to the status of the state religion. (Pagan Regeneration, p. 115). 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. As is commonly known Antioch was one of the earliest seats of Christianity. (2) All had secret rites for the initiated. The statement, ''A mix of Greco-Roman religions gradually replaced by Christianity'', is the one that can be used as an accurate description of religion in the Eastern Roman Empire in the first five centuries of the Common Era.Therefore, the option C holds true.. What is the significance of Eastern Roman Empire? or 404 526-8968. The origin of this cult is obscure and uncertain. Please c, ontact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at. First published June 1, 1975. Mystery Religions and Christianity . Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. 6. 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. After mourning over the dead Christ, represented most conspicuously by a wax image carried through the streets, there comes an announcement by the priest, on the midnight before Easter Sunday, that Christ is risen. They felt at first that these competitors were not worthy of consideration, and few references to them are found in Christian literature. It is an interpretation of human history that breeds For the Stoics, a relationship with the Logos is . The Mysteries of Mithras presents a revival of this ancient Roman mystery religion, popular from the late second century B.C. 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 . The books that the mystery communities used in Roman times cannot possibly be compared to the New Testament. Hydria by the Varrese Painter (c. 340 BC) depicting Eleusinian scenes. The three actors of the Eleusinian tragedy, enacted the mystery of human life and death. Leiden, 1984. 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. Greek life was characterized by such things as democratic institutions, seafaring, gymnasium and athletic games, theatre, and philosophy. Bottom line: They believe that the early Church borrowed heavily from pagan deities already in existence at the time of Jesus. 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 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). 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. They were themselves, in verying degrees, imperfect examples of the Galilean cult which was to replace them. The Greeks interpreted the national religions of the Greek Orient chiefly in terms of Platos philosophical and religious concepts. Around these two divinities there grew up a confused tangle of myths in explanation of their cult rites. Christianity emerged and grew at a time when mystery religions were popular throughout the Roman Empire. Thus, under identical conditions, new forms of religious communities sprang from similar roots. It was a nature myth portraying a vivid and realistic picture of the action of life in the vegetable world in regards to the changing seasons. Mithraism was brought to Europe from its Persian roots after Alexander the Great's conquests. 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. 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. The mystery religions were syncretistic, which means followers could incorporate beliefs from other religions into their own set of views. Willoughby quoted from Apollonius Argonautica 1.1098 ff. 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. (3) All offered mystical cleansing from sin. Never stop with the external, which may seem like borrowing, but recognize there is the perennial struggle for truth, fuller life itself. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. titled "The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity."King wrote it around the . The answer is "yes" - and also "no". The preceding three paragraphs are similar to a passage in Kings earlier paper, A Study of Mithraism, p. 211 in this volume. In connection with the temple, she established certain ceremonies and rites for her worship. 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. Les myst res pa ens et le myst re chr tiens. He hears all and sees all: none can deceive him.\[Footnote:] Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra, pp. Jesus was the divine Lord. The purity demanded in the worship of Sol and in the Chaldean fire rites was similar to Christian standards. The Easter ceremonies rivalled the pagan spring festivals. This is, of course, a loaded question. 122123: At this Attis festival a pine-tree was felled on March 22nd, and to its trunk an effigy of the god was fastened, Attis thus being slain and hanged on a tree, in the Biblical phrase. The precious metal used to coin Constantines gold pieces was taken from heathen temple treasuries. Data was gathered from books . Christianity's recently launched He Gets US campaignmillions of people got a dose during the Superbowltells us two things: 1. Mystery Religion-Basic Traits. The religions that Rome had the most problems with were monotheisticJudaism and Christianity. 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. The Christian representations of the Madonna and child are clearly the continuation of the representations of Isis and her son suckling her breast. Loisy, Alfred. Joining a mystery religion was a personal decision and was not connected to what family or culture one belonged to. The mystery religion of Ancient Babylon is the beginning of the occult, after the great flood that destroyed man . heralds of another mystery religion, and that Jesus 2. The Mystery-Religions and Christianity. 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. There are several explanations regarding the beginning of the observance of the Lords Supper. 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. Arthur E. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity (n.p. 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 . Question 10 1 out of 1 points It is likely that Christianity borrowed from the mystery religions, but when Christianity did this was hundreds of years after it began, and thus has nothing to do with the core of Christian proclamation. The parallel development was fostered by the new conditions prevailing in the Roman Empire, in which the old political units were dissolved, and the whole civilized world was ruled by one monarch. 511513\, The greatest influence of the mystery religions on Christianity lies in a different direction from that of doctrine and ritual. Now it seems that the general belief of the early church that Jesus was born in a cave grows directly out of Mithraic ideas. 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. CHRISTIANITY AND THE MYSTERY RELIGIONS SHIRLEY JACKSON CASE, PH.D. (5) The struggle with evil and the eventual triumph of good were essential ideas in both religions.37 (6) In summary we may say that the belief in immortality, a mediator between god and man, the observance of certain sacramental rites, the rebirth of converts, and (in most cases) the support of high ethical ideas were common to Mithraism as well as Christianity. This makes it sound as if they were unified, sharing common beliefs that . it has been suggested that Christianity had its origin in a mystery of initiates. Christianity emerged and grew at a time when mystery religions were popular throughout the Roman Empire. in his Christian Mysticism, p. 354, says that Catholicism owes to the Mysteries " the notions of secrecy, of 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. When they sat down to write they were expressing consciously that which had dwelled in their subconscious minds. CULT OF CYBELE. 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. It is stated with sufficient elaboration in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. It is because of this crusading spirit and its superb power of adaptability that Christianityahs {has} been able to survive. Whatever the religious doctrines of the Masonic sect it is plain that they do not embrace the central Christian . The greatest influence of the mystery religions on Christianity lies in a different direction from that of doctrine and ritual. 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. 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. It is a library research and is descriptive in nature. Clayborne Carson, Ralph Luker, and Penny A. Russell, eds. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, p. 123: There can be no doubt that these ceremonies and beliefs deeply coloured the interpretation placed by the first Christians upon the historic facts of the Crucifixion, burial, and coming again to life of Jesus., 15. 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. In fact the idea did not appear in the church as a tenet of Christianity until late in the Fourth Century.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. So through experience, knowledge, as through other forms, the outer manifestations of religion change. In winter vegetable life was dead while Demeter, the giver of life, grieved for the loss of her daughter. During the first semester of his second year at Crozer, King wrote this paper for Enslin's course on Greek religion. 3 Far from being dependent on mystery religions, Christianity can be correctly traced back to the life of a real flesh and bone person named Jesus 4 as well as to Old Testament Judaism. 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. 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. 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. Art redeems. A query from Stephanie on the Ethical Witches list turned up this paper by Rev. In theology the differences between early Christians, Gnostics (membersoften Christianof dualistic sects of the 2nd century ad), and pagan Hermetists were slight. A query from Stephanie on the Ethical Witches list in Austin turned up this paper by Rev. 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. 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. by Bart D. Ehrman. 384 pages, Paperback. It lies in the fact that the mystery religions paved the way for the presentation of . It is not so much that Christianity was influenced by the Mystery Cults, or borrowed from them, but that in the long process of history this religion developed. Christianity certainly has many important features in common with Greco-Roman mystery religions, but there are some crucial differences between Christianity and mystery religions that really set Christianity apart. It is evident that in Rome there was a festival celebrating the death and resurrection of Attis. Osiris and Isis, so runs the legend, were brother and sister and also 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. Martin Luther King Jr. titled " The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity. Church leaders talked about "initiations, passwords, and mysteries" using exactly the same . 222223 in this volume. It had to do with the nature of the Christian religion . 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