Mystery religion
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A mystery religion is any religion with an arcanum, or secret wisdom. In a mystery religion, an inner core of beliefs, practices, and the religion's true nature, are revealed only to those who have been initiated into its secrets. (The ancient Greek term μυστήρια (mysteria) means "initiation", notably in the context of the Eleusinian Mysteries.) Ancient mystery religions of the eastern Mediterranean area generally focused on mythic figures who had descended into Hades and returned or who otherwise exemplified death and rebirth, such as Bacchus, Orpheus, Osiris, and Tammuz.
Mystery religions tend historically to be geographically limited as to the majority of their core practitioners. This has changed somewhat with modern improvements in transportation and communication.
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[edit] Early Christians
In the language of some early Christians (followers of Gnosticism ), the mysteries were those religious teachings that were carefully guarded from the knowledge of the profane. An example is the Secret Gospel of Mark, which was preserved from profane view in Alexandria, and is now known only through chance references in a letter of Clement of Alexandria. The Gospel of Thomas purports to express mysteries that were confided by Jesus to Thomas alone, and the traditions of some early Gnostic Christians were based on esoteric information available only to initiates.
It has been suggested that Christianity had its origin in a mystery of initiates. According to this view, Christianity began as a Jewish adaptation of Greek mystery religion, and that Paul developed Christianity in another, more public, Hellenized direction, ultimately more acceptable to mainstream Roman culture. (Critics of this theory note that it does not explain how or why the monotheistic Jews would adopt pagan religious practices. However, the similarity between the story of Jesus and the mystery cults may help explain Christianity's rapid spread.)
Gnostic teachings were condemned as heretical by mainstream Pauline Christianity, which took as authoritative the apostles' personal eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus. The so-called "Gnostic Gospels" present a very different view of Jesus than that presented in the Canonical Gospels.
[edit] Other religious forms
The other general forms of religions are the "revealed religion" and "natural religion". The public revelations embodied in a written scripture are characteristic of any "revealed religion". The seasonally shared public cult practices are characteristic of a natural theology which has a developed mythology but no single orthodoxy.
[edit] Examples of current mystery religions
- The Druze religion
- The Yezidi religion
- Vodou
- Santería
- Candomblé
- Gnosticism
- Esoteric Christianity
- Hermeticism
- Setianism
- Thelema
- Wicca (esp. British Traditionalist) and certain other Neo-Pagan religions
- Zoroastrianism
[edit] Non-mystic mystery religions
Unlike most mystery religions, the following religions do not promote individual mysticism, and instead concentrate on written teachings, which are sometimes progressively revealed to initiates
- The Rosicrucian Order
[edit] Other mystery religions
Mystery religions of the ancient Mediterranean area were usually devoted to gods of death and rebirth. These myths are so reminiscent of Christ's passion and resurrection that J.R.R. Tolkien believed them to reflect divine reality, albeit imperfectly.[1]
- The Eleusinian Mysteries
- Minoian Worship (of Minos)
- The Cult of Orpheus
- The Cult of Osiris
- The Cult of Dionysus
- The Cult of Isis
- The Cult of Attis (in its original form, but see also Modern Gallae)
- The Cult of Tammuz
- Druidry
- Manichaeism
- Mithraism
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Frazer, James G. (1957). The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. London: Macmillan & Co.
- Kirk, G.S. (1970). Myth: Its Meaning and Function in Ancient and Other Cultures. Cambridge/Berkeley.
- Dodds, E.R. (1968). The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley.
