John Bartram wrote:
.. when I've tried to describe Chrestianity, I've not done a very good job. So I'll try to do better here; one qualification: as this was never spelled out clearly at the time, I have to reconstruct and this is at least partly speculative.
In the early first century, when Chrestianity appears, it is probably worship of Isis Chrest. Isis worship was already spread across the empire; I think the Chrest element makes this a variety; I guess it comes directly from Cleopatra, when she declared herself Isis resurrected. This resurrection is the key to understanding, I think, and led to Antinous, then the gospel story.
I know of no sacred texts for this period - the first two centuries (more or less) CE.
Chrestianity was designed to protect monarchical power in the Roman provinces. This is the sole interest in Antonia Minor, for Augustus, then her family. The threat to these monarchical families was the nationalism associated with the messianic Judaism in Judea, supported in the east by Jews from Mesopotamia and Iran. The Jewish tithe poured westwards to the Temple, managed by the Herodian monarchy.
When Agrippa I came to power, he became a supporter of the Qumran community, known by various names e.g. Essenes. They sent missionaries to neighbouring states and gained conversions and support. This is what triggered Saul to gather a gang and attack them; he then pretended to convert in order to gain access to this community; as their missionary, he secretly built his own Church from with the culturally-Greek communities in Greece and the Levant.
In short, we have an Isis Chrest cult made up of elite Romans, culturally-Greek Jews in Alexandria (e.g. Philo, his brother the alabarch and his sons), some monarchies in the Levant, and their trusted freedmen and women. It is driven politically to oppose messianic Judaism.
Religions tend to develop as they grow. For Chrestianity, the impetus for the first big change came with the sacrifice of Antinous, the end of the messianic threat/victory over this, then the overthrow of the governor of Edessa, who loyalty was to the family descended from Izates, who is recognised as divine by the end of the 2nd century.
The best friend of the new king (Agbar the Great) was
Bardaisan and as the 2nd century closes, he decides to justify his friend as king by composing what we call Source Q, the original gospel story.
Bardaisan wanted to explain how the overthrow of the (now) king's family in the early first century had been unjust. So he has two 'IS" characters, one a thief and one divine, on trial for treason;
Bardaisan blames both the Romans and Jews for allowing the thief to go free, while the divine one goes to heaven. Just down the road from Edessa is Emesa; the hereditary high priests of the solar Baal temple have one of their women (Julia Domna) marry Severus, who becomes emperor. This Severan dynasty has numerous, strong women from Emesa. They don't like losing their religious glory to a minor king in Edessa, so they declare Bardaisan a criminal, then invite the king to Rome and kill him.
But the gospel story has got out, spreading across the Levant. We find it at Dura Europos and from there it spreads east to Mesopotamia and Iran. The emperor takes over the movement, so the School of
Bardaisan remakes the gospel as imperial.
The
Bardaisan gospel bounces back, as Mani sends his missionaries to Syria; they convert Zenobia, who breaks the eastern empire away from Rome. Her empire is crushed and she goes to live in Rome, where she talks with the ruling families. This leads to Constantine I, who adopts the Chi-Rho, becoming Chrestian. His mother is the legendary Helen and I think she owned Brading Villa on the Isle of Wight, with this half-man/half rooster:
Chrestianity is short on theology and big on power. Its rites are Greek Magic. The NT is made as a parody. Chrestian saints are soldiers and rich. They use Philo's work to expand the life of IS Chrest. Quite possibly the Eastern Empire is created to be Chrestian.
The original NT reflects the influence of Izates; the Shepherd of Hermas - which has his family in an important position - is dropped.
This is how it stays until the iconoclast wars and Arab Conquests. They change Chrest to Christ and remake Roman history so Christianity appears in the early first century with Jesus Christ and his apostles. Charles is ok with having the pontiff a pretend emperor, because right then, the bishop was very weak and Charles had the only army able to resist the Arabs.
In Chrestianity, the main religious buildings are baptisteries; the clergy are mainly hermits and ascetics. Christianity builds churches on and over the baptisteries; the saintly shrines, on flowing water - usually river heads - become churches, then cathedrals. The Holy Roman Empire formally unites Church and State, beginning the bargaining process of Church approval of the monarchy in return for worldly power - land, taxation, troops, courts and punishment.
Chrestianity is overtly magical, whereas Christianity pretends it is god-given.
Well, probably still not a good explanation - I must work on this.
So we see the religion in stages. Within Christianity today, we may still discern the Greek solar theology and Greek Magic, but it is now more obtuse and under layers. I see Christianity as still pagan - its god is just another divine man and just another trinity.