The Pagan Origins of Christianity Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research

The first fictitious character of this paper lead explore the mystery-religions, the reasons behind their popularity, and the Hellenistic world in which they grew that began with black lovage the Great. Next, their characteristics and connections first with Judaism and later with Christianity will be more late discussed. In the second part it will be shown that the mystery-religions helped to clear the nerve pathway for the Christianization of the Greco- romish world by men such as capital of Minnesota the Apostle. Finally, the Emperor Constantines role in this story will be mentioned, during whose reign the mystery-religions declined and Christianity became the major religion of Europe and the near east. The paper will conclude with a brief speculation about the significance of these ideas to raw Christianity.IntroductionThe place and time in which Christianity developed was characterized by compound and confusion in all areas of life. Political, philosophical and especially r eligious questions were existence asked that had never been asked before, and traditional systems were not providing the answers. For nearly seven centuries, from the conquest of Alexander the Great to the establishment of Christianity as the state religion by the Roman Emperor Constantine, the ancient world sought these answers in the mystery-religions, independent groups hero-worshipping in new and experimental ways. Ancient religious tradition had failed to fulfill the unavoidably of this evolving and expanding society and these mystery-religions were a cultural expression of that need. Christianity grew into the midst of this world and was in fact the end result of the experiment started in the mystery-religions.The term, mystery-religion refers to various forms of worship popular in ancient t... ...d. Oxford Oxford UP, 1999.King, Martin Luther younger The Influence of the Mystery righteousnesss on Christianity. The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume I Called to Serve . Clayborne Carson, Ralph Luker, and Penny A. Russell, eds. Berkeley University of California Press, 1992. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project. Clayborne Carson, dir. Stanford University. 1 Feb. 2002 .Pike, Albert. Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted economical Rite of Freemasonry. Washington House of the Temple, 1966.Additional Works ConsultedJonas, Hans. The Gnostic Religion The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity. 2nd ed. Boston Beacon Press, 1991.Murray, Gilbert. tail fin Stages of Greek Religion. New York Doubleday, 1955.