nightshadetwine wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:19 pm
I think Christianity got it's universalism from the mystery cults.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_C ... syncretism:
Carrier notes four major trends in religion, occurring prior to the formation of Christianity:
- "Syncretism: combining a foreign cult deity with Hellenistic elements."
- "Monotheism: transforming polytheism into monotheism (via henotheism)."
- "Individualism: agricultural salvation cults retooled as personal salvation cults."
- "Cosmopolitanism: all races, cultures, classes admitted as equals, with fictive kinship (members are all “brothers”); you now “join” a religion rather than being born into it."
Carrier writes that per syncretism, "Mithraism was a syncretism of Persian and Hellenistic elements; the mysteries of Isis and Osiris were a syncretism of Egyptian and Hellenistic elements. Christianity is simply a continuation of the same trend: a syncretism of Jewish and Hellenistic elements. Each of these cults is unique and different from all the others in nearly every detail—but it's the general features they all share in common that reflect the overall fad that produced them in the first place, the very features that made them popular and successful within Greco-Roman culture."[102]
Carrier contends that Christianity originated from a Jewish sect ...
Cheers, I agree. I was looking at that Cosmopolitanism category, and the others could apply to the development of Christianity, too.
In those days many people in the Roman Empire deferred to or followed two or three religions: Jupiter, the cult of the emperor (since Augustus), and another religion if they wanted.
Hadrian followed Serapis, and a couple of other 2nd century emperors after him did, too. And of course Hadrian started and promoted the cult of Osiris-Antinoos in 130
AD/CE, starting the city of Antinoopolis where Antinous had died (across the Nile from Hermopolis), and in Athens he founded the Panhellenion, and started a festival to be held in honour of Antinous in October, the 'Antinoeia'.
Moreover, Hadrian focused on his new cult's spread within the Greek lands and in Summer 131 travelled them,
promoting Antinous in a syncretised form with the more familiar deity Hermes. On a visit to Trapezus in 131, he proclaimed the foundation of a temple devoted to Hermes, where the deity was probably venerated as Hermes-Antinous. Although Hadrian preferred to associate Antinous with Hermes,
the new deity was far more widely syncretised with the god Dionysus across the Empire. The cult also spread through Egypt, and within a few years of its foundation, altars and temples to the god had been erected in Hermopolis, Alexandria, Oxyrhynchus, Tebytnis, Lykopolis, and Luxor, via
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinous
I'm not sure Christianity originated solely from a Jewish sect. If it did it would have been a sect either not part of the new school that started in Galilee after the fall of The Second Temple, or it could have been one that split off at some point, and started engaging with communities that followed the mystery religions.
nightshadetwine wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:19 pm
"
The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity" By James S. Jeffers:
The concept of an afterlife, which was never very important for traditional Greek and Roman religions, was a significant element in mystery religions. In addition, secret ceremonies were central to mystery religions (hence the "mystery" element). Those who were initiated into the cult's secret rites were thereby bound to their fellow adherents. The initiates also learned the central secret of the group, typically involving how to achieve union with the cult's deity. Another common element of mystery religions was a myth telling how the deity had either defeated his or her enemies or returned to life after death. As the cult member shared in the god's triumph, he or she was redeemed from the earthly and temporal. Instead, and in addition to their desire for redemption, they emphasized the persuit of a sense of oneness with their god and ultimately the attainment of immortality.
The religion of the Olympian gods had little impact on the average Greek peasant farmer. These gods, when they took an interest in human affairs, were depicted as being interested in only the affairs of great men or nations. They had no interest in the common people. The mystery religions of Greece, which go back at least to 1500 B.C., appealed to such people.
The Orphic mystery cult used to go around initiating people into their religion kind of like the Christians did.
Yep. Cheers.