Christianity Flashcards
What are the problems with labelling Christianity as a mystery cult?
Nazis made an anti-semitic argument previously that early Christianity comes from Greek mystery religion as an anti-semitic movement - their point of view was that Christianity used the Old Testament for their own purposes, utilising the allegory within it but not sticking to the laws and traditions within the Torah
What literary evidence is there for describing Christianity as a mystery cult?
Christianity is a mystery cult - usage of the term within Christian texts
“…they must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.”
1 Timothy 3.9
“…you are fellow initiates with Paul…”
Ignatius, Ephesians 12.2
“…deacons of the mysteries of Jesus Christ…”
Ignatians, Trallians 2.3
What main feature of Christianity associates it with mysteria?
Eating and drinking of their god in Christianity
Do the mystery cults eat their gods?
Dionysian initiates? Recreating the titans tearing apart and consuming Dionysus
Attic sacrifice of a bull?
Which belief system do Christianity and mystery cults have in common?
Universality - similarity with mystery cults
“You are all one in Christ Jesus” : higher level of being you can access with initiation - Similarities with the Metamorphoses of Apuleius
What main feature does Christ share with cults such as Orphism and Dionysiac mysteries?
Dying-rising god
Initiation as a death
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?” Romans 6:3-5
What sacramental feature brings together Christianity and mystery cults?
Attempt at gaining immortality
“…breaking one bread, which is a medicine that brings immortality, an antidote that allows us not to die but to live at all times in Jesus Christ.” Ignatius, Ephesians 20.2
“Who also, having been eternally reborn through the arcana and the libations…” CIL VI 736 (391 CE)
Christianity calls this the ‘sacrament’
