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Getting Started | |||
Scholars argue> | Yes | No | Jesus Theories |
Facts > | Sourcebook Anthologies | Sourcebooks: ancient texts | |
Background > | Ancient Civilization | Ancient Religion | Early Christianity |
Special topics | Mystery Religions | Ancient Judaism | |
Amateur > | Pagan Origins | Hablo Greek-o |
Mystery
Religions and specific cults |
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What you'll find:
Who you gonna trust? The ancients. Believing scholars shade the facts in favor of the myth. Non-believers exaggerate and make up facts and connections as a way to attack the church. So who are you going to trust? That's up to you. I trust the ancients—people alive back when Christianity began, and before. That's what this book is about. This is a sourcebook, a collection of primary documents—excerpts from ancient authors who wrote about Pagan religion and early Christianity. It's a great collection, with the original text of most of the standard ancient references to the pagan mystery religions. This is a powerful book. You'll discover firsthand, right from the pens of the ancients themselves, that Dionysus came to earth "incognito, disguised as a man"; that Pagan Gods died and were reborn with the meaning that "the God is saved, and we shall have salvation."; that pagans had initiation ceremonies seen as "a voluntary death", sacred meals shared with the God, ceremonial washing, Pagan miracles, a Godman who changed water into wine, and a Pagan version of the great flood. And much more. An important book that no serious student will be without. Highly recommended. . |
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Early Gentile
Christianity and Its Hellenistic Background |
You'll find:
First published in 1928 and reissued and updated in 1964,
this is the canonical refutation of the late 19th and
early 20th century scholarly claims that Christianity borrowed
from Paganism. This essay is widely cited as an authority, "Dr.
Nock has refuted the German School. . .", and the arguments Nock
developed here are the same ones believers use today.
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Nock was a Harvard professor who read and understood the scholarship. He did not—could not, in that generation when scholars knew better—deny the deep similarities between Christianity and the Pagan mysteries. For example >> |
The Eucharist ...
is in line with contemporary mysteries, which purported to represent the
sufferings and triumph of a god, in which his worshipers sympathized and
shared....The Eucharist
is a mystery, as mysteries were then understood, and Christianity, the
heir of Judaism, has also an essential spiritual continuity with Hellenistic
religion. |
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Nock was also a committed Christian, a Doctor of Divinity who wasn't about to admit Christianity borrowed from Paganism, so for every similarity he comes up with a reason the similarity doesn't count. The 1964 Harper Torchbook edition is expanded with Nock's later thoughts and arguments. It is out of print, but often available used through Amazon
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The
Mystery-Religions |
What you'll find:
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Hellenistic
Mystery Religions
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What you'll find:
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Isis
and Osiris
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This is the same Plutarch who wrote Plutarch's Lives. Like Solon, Plato and Pythagoras before him, when he wasn't biographying Plutarch traveled to Egypt and studied the mysteries of Isis and Osiris—probably even got initiated (though he doesn't say for sure). Isis and Osiris, at just over 90 pages, is modern scholarship's main source for the goodies on one of the ancient world's big name Pagan religions. This Loeb translation is pretty easy to read. And fun. You'll discover "accounts of the dismemberment of Osiris and his revivification and regenesis" [Isis and Osiris, 365]—His death and resurrection! Wow. Be careful, there are a bunch of P's Moralias in print at Loeb and elsewhere. For Isis and Osiris, you want number V, which is Loeb #306. And the good thing is, you don't have to believe me, you can read it for yourself. |
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Whether or not you accept the conclusion, the early chapters laying out the well know basic facts about Pagan / Christian connections will change your understanding of Christian origins and the history of Western thought.
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Eleusis:
Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter by Karl Cerenyi
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The
Mysteries of Eleusis were the first and biggest in the ancient world.
Luckily this most-cited of scholarly books on the subject is clear and well
written.
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The
Roman Cult of Mithras: The
God and His Mysteries by Manfred Clauss
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Everything
you need to know about Mithras in a short, readable, scholarly book.
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The
Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries by David Ulansey
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A
often cited book, from a professor in California, advancing a radical new
theory identifying MIthras with Perseus and basing his cult on ancient astrology.
Interesting, but not essential to the Pagan Origins question.
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