But it was this very date that the festival of Dianna or Artemis was celebrated, with whom Isis was identified. cit., p. 121.\ This still stands as a festival in the Christian calendar; and thus Christians unconsciously perpetuate the worship of Osiris in modern times.21, However this is not the only point at which the Religion of Osiris and Isis exerted influence on Christianity. And today similar experiences are represented by Greek Christians. 40. The answer is "yes" - and also "no". 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. 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 encouraged the movement away from the state religions and the philosophical systems and toward the desire for personal salvation and promise of immortality. While playing she was stolen by Pluto and carried off to the underworld to be his bride. Now it seems that the general belief of the early church that Jesus was born in a cave grows directly out of Mithraic ideas. 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 the hellenistic mystery religion decisively in Alexandria and contributed to its development. Forces have been known to delay trends but very few have stopped them. 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. The first Christian communities resembled the mystery communities in big cities and seaports by providing social security and the feeling of brotherhood. Thus, the religions had a common conceptual framework. 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. Each following {year} there was a great festival in commemoration of his resurrection, and the very words, The Lord is risen, were probable used. 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. 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. 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 . 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. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. Reprinted as The Mystery-Religions: A Study in the Religious Background of Early Christianity (New York, 1975). 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. 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. 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. Arthur E. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity (n.p. Benjamin Cain. This disregard for correct doctrine is a key difference between mystery religions and Christianity. There are several explanations regarding the beginning of the observance of the Lords Supper. Here we see how Mary gradually came to take the place of the goddess.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. This universal law is expecially true of religion. We should try to see the dark comedy in all things. For an instance, the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist have been mentioned as rites, which were preactice {practiced} by both Christians and pagans. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. This article discusses mystery religions and how they influenced the New Testament and early Christianity. The Greco-Roman world in which the early church developed was one of diverse religions. The previous five sentences are similar to a passage in Kings earlier paper, A Study of Mithraism, pp. This was by no means an accident. 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. 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 . According to this view, Christianity began as a Jewish adaptation of Greek mystery . 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. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. For the Stoics, a relationship with the Logos is . 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. Is Christianity the crowning achievement in the development of religious thought or will there be another religion more advanced? 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. 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.\[Footnote:] Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, p. 114.\7 She was the Great Mother not only of all the gods, but of all men as well.8 The winds, the sea, the earth, and the snowy seat of Olympus are hers, and when from her mountains she ascends into the great heavens, the son of Cronus himself gives way before her, and in like manner do also the other immortal blest honor the dread goddess.\[Footnote:] Quoted in Willoughbys, Pagan Regeneration, p. 115.9\. Masonry Encompasses All Elements of a Religion of Naturalism. 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. 37. The celebration of his ascension in the sight of his worshippers was the final act of the festival., 17. 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. 222223 in this volume. Borrowing was not only natural but inevitable.6. Some held that the sacrament was instituted by Jesus himself. ISBN-13 : 978-0486231242. He too had found the road to heaven by his suffering and resurrection. This was accomplished, not by any slavish process of imitation, but by {a} serious attempt to meet better the specific religious needs that the mysteries had awakened and nourished, and by phrasing religious assurances more convincingly in similar terminology.\[Footnote:] Case, The Mystery Religions, The Encyclopedia of Religion, Edited by Vergilius Ferm, pp. CULT OF CYBELE. It is improbable, however, that either of these were introduced into Christian practices by association with the mystery cults. In the latter capacity Isis was represented in tens of thousands of statuettes and paintings, holding the divine child in her arms. Christianity emerged and grew at a time when mystery religions were popular throughout the Roman Empire. 2, 3.\33 Tarsus, the home of Saint Paul, was one of the great centres of his worship; and there is a decided tinge of Mithraism in the Epistles and Gospels. King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Crozer Theological Seminary). 9.1K Followers. 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. The greatest influence of the mystery religions on Christianity lies in a different direction from that of doctrine and ritual. They felt at first that these competitors were not worthy of consideration, and few references to them are found in Christian literature. It is well-nigh impossible to . In winter vegetable life was dead while Demeter, the giver of life, grieved for the loss of her daughter. Esoteric Christianity teaches that Christianity is a mystery religion and that only a small minority of people ever achieve the enlightenment necessary to crack the arcane teachings of the Bible and truly know God. It should also be noted that early Christianity was an exclusivistic religion while the mystery cults were not. cit., p. 190.\. 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. 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.. The doctrine is almost identical. He emerges from the rocky summits of eastern mountains at dawn, and goes through heaven with a team of four white horses; when the night falls he still illumines the surface of the earth, ever walking, ever watchful. He is not sun or moon or any star, but a spirit of light, ever wakeful, watching with a hundred eyes. Their members refused to make offerings to Roman gods or take part in Roman religious festivals, which Rome considered a matter of showing loyalty. 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. Conservative Evangelical Christians care about their brand . Hardcover, 335 pages. The preceding five sentences are similar to a passage in A Study of Mithraism, pp. 39. A mystery religion is any religion with an arcanum, or body of secret wisdom. 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. 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. It's one of the things that made Christianity quite distinct in the ancient world. Even Christian apologist had to admit that fact. 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. 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 . Followers of Mithra became less common after . Christianity was subject to the same influences from the environment as were the other cults, and it sometimes produced the same reaction. 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. in his Christian Mysticism, p. 354, says that Catholicism owes to the Mysteries " the notions of secrecy, of But after being in contact with these surrounding religions and hearing certain doctrines expressed, it was only natural for some of these views to become a part of their subconscious minds. The present study represents an attempt to provide a survey of the influence of the mystery religions on Christianity. 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. It was believed that this god suffered a cruel death, after which he descended into hell, rose again, and then ascended into Heaven. It is because of this crusading spirit and its superb power of adaptability that Christianityahs {has} been able to survive. It is also significant to know that Roman tolerance had favoured this great syncretism of religious ideas. Please c, ontact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at. 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; Mystery religions were seen as more vibrant than the more . 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. In the large Gnostic library discovered at Najammd, in upper Egypt, in 1945, Hermetic writings were found sideby-side with Christian Gnostic texts. 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. The word "Catholic" means Universalthe true Christian goal is not religion based on mixture, but a return to the original, simple, powerful, and spiritual faith that was once delivered to the saints."-Ralph Woodrow; pg. Each year nature passed through the cycle of apparent death and resurrection. 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. (2) December 25 came to be considered as the anniversary of the birth of Mithra and Christ also. They prepared the people mentally and emotionally to understand the type of religion which Christianity represented. So we might say that Eleusinianism was not blotted out by Christianity. Osiris and Isis, so the legend runs, were at one and the same time, brother and sister, 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. Both the Apostles Creed and the Athanasian {Creed} say that between the Friday night and Sunday morning Jesus was in Hades. 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. 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. 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. The conditions of that era made it possible for these religions to sweep like a tidal wave over the ancient world. The festival of all Saints, which is held one day before that of all Souls is also probably identical with it in origin.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. or 404 526-8968. Meanwhile the coffin was washed up on the Syrian coast, and became miraculously lodged in the trunk of a tree. 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. Dimensions : 5.37 x 0.73 x 8.4 inches. He had left behind the secret whereby men could achieve the goal with him.\[Footnote:] Enslin, op. It can be shown that the very earliest practices of Christianity coincided with popular mystery cults on many levels. Please contact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. atlicensing@i-p-m.comor 404 526-8968. After his death, the pagan opposition to Christianity continued for one more generation. [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. Martin Luther King Jr. titled "The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity."King wrote it around the . First published June 1, 1975. 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. Initiation into a mystery religion. He says: Following the lead of the apostle Paul, the Christian missionaries on gentile soil finally made of Christianity a more appealing religion than any of the other mystery cults. 1. The other gods pleaded with her to relent but she refused to do so until Persephone was restored to her. 3. At this moment the light from the candle of the priest is passed on to light the candles of his companions; guns and firecrackers are discharged as they prepare to break the Lenten fast.\[Footnote:] Fairbanks, Greek Religion, p. 288.\29 As in the Eleusinian mysteries the modern Greek Christian finds this a moment of supreme joy. He too had God for his father. The Mystery Religions were eventually wiped out by Christianity. It is evident that in Rome there was a festival celebrating the death and resurrection of Attis. Payam Nabarz reveals the history and tenets of Mithraism, its connections to Christianity, Islam, and Freemasonry, and the modern neo-pagan practice of . Martin Luther King Jr. titled " The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity. 5. The purity demanded in the worship of Sol and in the Chaldean fire rites was similar to Christian standards. 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 . 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. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. 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. Item Weight : 14.3 ounces. 6. The more crusading a religion is, the more it absorbs. Certainly Christianity has been a crusading religion from the beginning. I learned that as an artistic writer who did a doctorate in philosophy. The later non-Greek mysteries were personal, private, and individualistic. They originated in tribal ceremonies that were performed by primitive peoples in many parts of the world. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, pp. Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra (Chicago: Open Court, 1910), pp. 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. 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