Ancient Mystery Religions as a Background to Early Christianity?

Ancient Mystery Religions as a Background to Early Christianity?

Vortrag an der Katholisch-Theologischen Fakultät der Universität Innsbruck

The flowering of mystery religions is a prominent feature of the Roman imperial era. Mystery religions have long been seen as symptomatic of the decline in traditional beliefs, offering small-scale and intimate societies often through rituals of conversion and initiation and providing access to the divine, release from pain and the mundane, and purification from “sin”. In this way, Protestant ideas were retrojected onto the religious world of the Roman Empire. Today there is far greater appreciation for the environment in which early Christ-groups existed. In a society characterised by displacement, migration, and the formation of communities, small groups were by no means the dominant expression of religious life, as public performance played a major role. Christian liturgy and theology came to resemble classical mystery religions. In this presentation I reflect on the history of research on ancient religions and the origins of Christianity, and the prejudices that affect historical research.