This article discusses mystery religions and how they influenced the New Testament and early Christianity. The Greeks interpreted the national religions of the Greek Orient chiefly in terms of Platos philosophical and religious concepts. The mysteries of human life and death are vividly enacted by Demeter, Persephone, and Hades. The hypothesis of a mutual dependence has been proposed by scholarsespecially a dependence of Christianity upon the mysteriesbut such theories have been discarded. To show the beginning of a new era, the capital of the empire was transferred to the new Christian city of Constantinople. 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 . Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra (Chicago: Open Court, 1910), pp. It is celebrated annually on August 13th. 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. 213214 in this volume. Genres Religion HistoryNonfictionThe World. 511513\, The greatest influence of the mystery religions on Christianity lies in a different direction from that of doctrine and ritual. 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. 7. 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. It, Christianity, is the expression of the longing of people for light, truth, salvation, security. These scholars made two errors here. The mystery religions exerted some influence on the thinkers of the Middle Ages and the philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. However, in the conclusion I will attempt to give those fundamental aspects, characteristic of all the cults, that greatly influenced Christianity. Christianity emerged and grew at a time when mystery religions were popular throughout the Roman Empire. King wrote this paper for the course Development of Christian Ideas, taught by Davis. After his death, the pagan opposition to Christianity continued for one more generation. 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. It lies in the fact that the mystery religions paved the way for the presentation of Christianity to the world of that time. " King wrote . Christianity was subject to the same influences from the environment as were the other cults, and it sometimes produced the same reaction. He too had God for his father. They felt at first that these competitors were not worthy of consideration, and few references to them are found in Christian literature. 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. It should also be noted that early Christianity was an exclusivistic religion while the mystery cults were not. There seems little doubt that this custom was identical with the Egyptian festival. We should try to see the dark comedy in all things. Mystery Religion-Basic Traits. 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. The central theme of the myth was the triumph of Attis over death, and the participant in the rites of the cult undoubtedly believed that his attachment to the victorious deity would insure a similar triumph in his life. 5. It was believed that this god suffered a cruel death, after which he descended into hell, rose again, and then ascended into Heaven. 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. "The correspondences between Christianity and the other mystery religions of antiquity are perhaps more startling than the differences. How do we determine conjectured information? 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. 115116: Now one of the earliest seats of Christianity was Antioch; but in that city there was celebrated each year the death and resurrection of the god Tammuz or Adonis, This faith had always exerted its influence on Jewish thought, and, indeed, the prophet Ezekiel had found it necessary to scold the women of Jerusalem for weeping for the dead Tammuz at the very gate of the Temple; while, in the end, the place at Bethlehem selected by the early Christians as the scene of the birth of Jesus (for want to [sic] any knowledge as to where the event had really occurred) was none other than an early shrine of this pagan god, as St. Jerome was horrified to discovera fact which shows that Tammuz or Adonis ultimately became confused in mens minds with Jesus Christ., 16. All of Lent's penitential practices and acts of spiritual renewal find their meaning in the journey of self-emptying and self-giving love that Jesus undertakes in his death and resurrection. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. Thus, under identical conditions, new forms of religious communities sprang from similar roots. The mystery religions were syncretistic, which means followers could incorporate beliefs from other religions into their own set of views. 38. 3. In this myth, Persephone is depicted playing in the meadows of Mysia in Asia with the daughters of Oceanus and Tithys. 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 6. The holy stories of the mysteries were myths; the Gospels of the New Testament, however, relate historical events. Christianity was truly indebted to the mystery religions for this contribution, for they had done this part of the groundwork and thus opened the way for Christian missionary work. 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. ISBN-10 : 0486231240. 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. As is commonly known Isis had two capacities which her worshippers warmly commended her for. And today similar experiences are represented by Greek Christians. (4) All promised a happy future life for the faithful.\[Footnote:] Enslin, Christian Beginnings, pp. 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. 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. Here are my top five reasons mystery religions did not influence Christianity . The staggering question that now arises is, what will be the next stage of mans religious progress? If the definition is that the religion keeps things secret, then no, because secrets are about maintaining secrecy and exclusivity, and Latter-Day Saints do the . #516 in History of Religions. The essential features of Christianity were fixed once and for all in this book; the mystery doctrines, however, always remained in a much greater state of fluidity. 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. the hellenistic mystery religion decisively in Alexandria and contributed to its development. 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. Christianity emerged and grew at a time when mystery religions were popular throughout the Roman Empire. They encouraged the movement away from the state religions and the philosophical systems and toward the desire for personal salvation and promise of immortality. Various writers gave different Versions of the Cybele-Attis myth. 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. 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. In the spring, those who had shared Demeters grief for the loss of her daugher welcomed the return of Persephone with all the joy that the returning life of vegetation might kindle. On the whole, early Christians were not greatly concerned about the likenesses between the Mithraic cult and their own. Is Christianity the crowning achievement in the development of religious thought or will there be another religion more advanced? The Greco-Roman world in which the early church developed was one of diverse 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 Eleusinian myth told of these fundamental human experiences as well as of the life of nature., 29. The religious art of the Christians continued the pagan art of the preceding generations. 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. So we might say that Eleusinianism was not blotted out by Christianity. Scholars wrongly infused Christian terms into the mystery religion. Mystery religions were seen as more vibrant than the more . Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. Willoughby quoted from Apollonius Argonautica 1.1098 ff. Mystery Religions and Christianity . Paperback : 384 pages. The greatest influence of the mystery religions on Christianity lies in a different direction from that of doctrine and ritual. 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