Paper 98 - 'Melchizedek Teachings in the Occident' Parallel Chart · 2020. 8. 4. · arbiter of...

WORK-IN-PROGRESS (AUGUST 2, 2020) PARALLEL CHART FOR

Paper 98 — The Melchizedek Teachings in the Occident

© 2010, 2011, 2015, 2020 Matthew Block

This chart is a revision of the 2010, 2011 and 2015 versions.Most endnotes and Urantia Book cross-references have been deleted to enhance readability.

Sources for Paper 98, in the order in which they first appear

(1) William Kelley Wright, Ph.D., A Student’s Philosophy of Religion (New York: TheMacmillan Company, 1922, 1935)

(2) Lewis Browne, This Believing World: A Simple Account of the Great Religions ofMankind (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926)

(3) E. Washburn Hopkins, Ph.D., LL.D., Origin and Evolution of Religion (New York: YaleUniversity Press, 1923)

Key

(a) Green indicates where a source author first appears, or where he/she reappears.

(b) Yellow highlights most parallelisms.

(c) Tan highlights parallelisms occurring further apart, usually not in the same row.

(d) An underlined word or words indicates where the source and the UB writer pointedlydiffer from each other.

(e) Blue indicates original (or “revealed”) information, or UB-specific terminology andconcepts. (What to highlight in this regard is debatable; the highlights are tentative.)

(f) Light green indicates Bible passages or fragments thereof, which are not paralleled in thesource texts.

1

SOURCE OR PARALLEL URANTIA PAPER 98

Work-in-progress Version 31 mei 2010© 2010, 2011, 2015, 2020 Matthew Block Revised 28 Jan. 2015, 2 Aug. 2020

PAPER 98 — THEM E L C H I Z E D E KTEACHINGS IN THEOCCIDENT

98:0.1 The Melchizedek teachingsentered Europe along many routes, butchiefly they came by way of Egypt andwere embodied in Occidental philosophyafter being thoroughly Hellenized andlater Christianized. The ideals of theWestern world were basically Socratic,and its later religious philosophy becamethat of Jesus as it was modified andcompromised through contact withevolving Occidental philosophy andreligion, all of which culminated in theChristian church.

98:0.2 For a long time in Europe theSalem missionaries carried on theiractivities, becoming gradually absorbedinto many of the cults and ritual groupswhich periodically arose. Among thosewho maintained the Salem teachings inthe purest form must be mentioned theCynics. These preachers of faith and trustin God were still functioning in RomanEurope in the first century after Christ,being later incorporated into the newlyforming Christian religion.

98:0.3 Much of the Salem doctrine wasspread in Europe by the Jewishmercenary soldiers who fought in somany of the Occidental military struggles.In ancient times the Jews were famed asmuch for military valor as for theologicpeculiarities.

2


98:0.4 The basic doctrines of Greekphilosophy, Jewish theology, andChristian ethics were fundamentallyrepercussions of the earlier Melchizedekteachings.

1. THE SALEM RELIGIONAMONG THE GREEKS

98:1.1 The Salem missionaries mighthave built up a great religious structureamong the Greeks had it not been fortheir strict interpretation of their oath ofordination, a pledge imposed byMachiventa which forbade theorganization of exclusive congregationsfor worship, and which exacted thepromise of each teacher never to functionas a priest, never to receive fees forreligious service, only food, clothing, andshelter. When the Melchizedek teacherspenetrated to pre-Hellenic Greece, theyfound a people who still fostered thetraditions of Adamson and the days of theAndites, but these teachings had becomegreatly adulterated with the notions andbeliefs of the hordes of inferior slavesthat had been brought to the Greek shoresin increasing numbers. This adulterationproduced a reversion to

IX: GREECE AND ROME (Wright 108)

IV—The Olympians (Wright 112)

[contd] The Olympian deities, whoseworship the city states made splendid andbeautiful, were an inheritance fromearlier times. They were the brilliantachievement of the age that produced theHomeric poems, the ninth and eighthcenturies B.C. At a still earlier period thereligion of the savage ancestors of theGreeks had been a low form of animism,with brutal and bloody rites (Wr 112).

a crude animism with bloody rites,

3


III—The Religion of the Greek City State (Wright110)

There was a large variety of malignantspirits, Keres, who needed to beplacated.... Human beings, probablycriminals condemned to death, seem atleast in early times to have beensacrificed for this purpose (Wr 112). the lower classes even making ceremonial

out of the execution of condemnedcriminals.

BOOK TWO: HOW RELIGIONDEVELOPED IN THE ANCIENTWORLD (Browne 60)

IV: THE GREEKS (Browne 89)

1. The Minoan religion—how the Greek godsarose—the Olympian cult. (Browne 89)

98:1.2 The early influence of the Salemteachers was nearly destroyed by

Only with the coming of the Indo-European Greeks does the religion of thepeninsula become better known to us.These invaders were of the same stock asthe Hindus and other Aryans, and whenthey swept southward from CentralEurope sometime before 1200 B.C.,

the so-called Aryan invasion fromsouthern Europe and the East.

they brought with them their sky-god,Zeus Pater, and all their other old Aryandeities (B 89-90).

These Hellenic invaders brought alongwith them anthropomorphic God conceptssimilar to those which their Aryan fellowshad carried to India.

This importation inaugurated theevolution of the Greek family of gods andgoddesses.

4


And thus a new religion came into being.In part it was a fear-riddled, magic-mongering cult rooted in the half-civilization of the Minoans; and in part itwas the shallow, light-hearted, myth-making cult of the barbaric Greeks (B91).

This new religion was partly based on thecults of the incoming Hellenic barbarians,but it also shared in the myths of the olderinhabitants of Greece.

XVI: RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY(Hopkins 274)

[The religion of pre-civilized (Aryanized)Greece] was essentially an earth-cult,with snakes, spirits of fertility, phallicmales, reproductive mother-deities, many-breasted Artemis, Hera the cow-goddess,Demeter, mother earth, prolific as herrooting sow, a religion of dark secrets, ofghost and sex and fear and purifications,probably akin to the religion of the earlyHebrews in some respects. This is whatthe Aryan invaders found as they sweptdown from the North upon these women-ridden natives of the Mediterranean.

98:1.3 The Hellenic Greeks found theMediterranean world largely dominatedby the mother cult,

They set their man-god Zeus of the brightsky over the cowering female divinitiesand made him the object of worship in allthe ghost and grain mysteries, which hadhitherto had no god at all or had beenunder some shadowy spirit.

and they imposed upon these peoplestheir man-god, Dyaus-Zeus,

Already head of his own pantheon, Zeusnow became head of all the spiritualworld ... (Ho 276-77).

who had already become, like Yahwehamong the henotheistic Semites, head ofthe whole Greek pantheon of subordinategods.

Yet even so the Greek idea of Fate tendedto reduce the idea of God. But in fact, asGreek religion never succeeded entirelyin freeing itself from the under-world orin freeing its gods from their passions, themonotheistic idea did not descend belowthe poets and philosophers (Ho 278).

And the Greeks would have eventuallyachieved a true monotheism in theconcept of Zeus except for their retentionof the overcontrol of Fate.

5


A God of final value must, himself, be thearbiter of fate and the creator of destiny.


1. The Minoan religion—how the Greek godsarose—the Olympian cult. (Browne 89)

98:1.4 As a consequence of thesefactors in religious evolution, therepresently developed the popular belief in

[contd from 98:1.2] For many centuriesthe second element remained dominant.When the minstrels of classic Greecesang of the gods, they sang of glorifiedmen: gay, lustful, brawling heroes, whosported about on Mount Olympus withoutgiving the slightest heed to morality orproperty.

the happy-go-lucky gods of MountOlympus, gods more human than divine,

And there seems to have been no thoughtof any compelling tie between the peopleand the gods. Even centuries later thephilosopher Aristotle solemnly wrote, “tolove God would be improper” (B 91). and gods which the intelligent Greeks

never did regard very seriously.

[contd] But if the early Greeks did notlove their deities, neither did they greatlyfear them. The tales that are calledHomeric reveal almost no trace of anyterror of the gods.

They neither greatly loved nor greatlyfeared these divinities of their owncreation.

The people seem to have regarded Zeusand his divine family with a measure offondness, perhaps even with a measure ofawe—but nothing more.

They had a patriotic and racial feeling forZeus and his family of half men and halfgods, but they hardly reverenced orworshiped them.

98:1.5 The Hellenes became soimpregnated with the antipriestcraftdoctrines of the earlier Salem teachersthat

Perhaps this was because the priesthoodnever attained any great power in ancientGreece (B 91).

no priesthood of any importance everarose in Greece.

6


The images of the gods were carved byartists who thought only of beauty, not byholy men bowed in terror or reverence (B92).

Even the making of images to the godsbecame more of a work in art than amatter of worship.


IV—The Olympians (Wright 112)

[contd from 98:1.1] From such crudebeginnings, there developed, through theagency of the Homeric poems, theOlympian gods and goddesses,—the mostsublime beings that the mind of man hasever been able to produce, so long as ithas continued to think of the divine inanthropomorphic imagery (Wr 112).

98:1.6 The Olympian gods illustrateman’s typical anthropomorphism.

As [Homer’s] purpose was to entertain,rather than to edify, he gave Greekmythology an aesthetic rather than anethical form,—a characteristic which italways retained (Wr 112).

But the Greek mythology was moreaesthetic than ethic.

Professor Gilbert Murray regards thecreation of the Olympian gods as a greatreligious reformation. In place of theworld conceived by earlier periods, “asmerely subject to incursions of manasnakes and bulls and thunder-stones andmonsters,” it gave the Greek theconception of the world “as governed byan organized body of personal andreasoning rulers, wise and bountifulfathers, like man in mind and shape, onlyunspeakably higher” (Wr 113-14).

The Greek religion was helpful in that itportrayed a universe governed by a deitygroup.

7


V— Attempted Reforms by Poets and Philosophers(Wright 114)

[contd] A time came when Greekcivilization progressed far beyond itslevel in Homeric times. Moralityadvanced with it.... It became difficult forthe Greeks to continue to revere the gods,and yet to regard them as occasionallyguilty of conduct that would have beenblameworthy in men. The old notions ofthe gods needed to be revised (Wr 114).

But Greek morals, ethics, and philosophypresently advanced far beyond the godconcept,

and this imbalance between intellectualand spiritual growth was as hazardous toGreece as it had proved to be in India.

2. GREEK PHILOSOPHICTHOUGHT


2. The Olympian cult fails—the learned take tophilosophy. (Browne 92)

[contd] But though that shallow, light-hearted cult managed to persist for awhile, ultimately it had no alternative butto fade away and be forgotten.... It hadtoo little of that commingled terror andhope, too little of that blasting fear andfebrile yearning, which is the stuffwhereof enduring faiths are made.

98:2.1 A lightly regarded andsuperficial religion cannot endure,

[A well-organized priestly caste inevitablysucceeds in hammering the “fear of the gods”deeply—usually too deeply—into the hearts of thepeople. But no such caste ever existed among theGreeks (B 91).]

especially when it has no priesthood tofoster its forms and to fill the hearts of thedevotees with fear and awe.

Essentially the cult was without point,without much value or helpfulness in thebusiness of keeping alive. It held outneither a comforting hand nor even athreatening fist to man.

The Olympian religion did not promisesalvation, nor did it quench the spiritualthirst of its believers;

8


And therefore it could not possibly keepalive itself (B 92).

therefore was it doomed to perish.

Within a millennium of its inception ithad nearly vanished, and the Greeks werewithout a national religion,

But it did not die of a sudden.Already by the sixth century B.C. thevanity of the Olympian cult was sensedby the keener minds in Athens and theother city-states of Greece. But not untilthe fourth century did it really give up theghost.

the gods of Olympus having lost theirhold upon the better minds.

98:2.2 This was the situation when,during the sixth century before Christ, theOrient and the Levant experienced arevival of spiritual consciousness and anew awakening to the recognition ofmonotheism. But the West did not sharein this new development; neither Europenor northern Africa extensively partici-pated in this religious renaissance.

And during all those years of its slowdisintegration, new approaches tosalvation were being discovered by theGreeks. The learned took to philosophy,for they were far advanced in mentalityand fully able to extract satisfaction fromsuch a discipline.

The Greeks, however, did engage in amagnificent intellectual advancement.

Had primitive fear swirled higher aroundthem, of course they would never havebeen capable of being sustained byphilosophy. They would have resortedinstead to magic spells for help, and goneclutching bewilderedly at mythical spirits.But the flood of fear had subsided, andonly a slough of despond was left. It wasnot terror, therefore, so much as disquietthat spurred the learned folk of Hellas togo seeking salvation.

They had begun to master fear and nolonger sought religion as an antidotetherefor,

9


but they did not perceive that true religionis the cure for soul hunger, spiritualdisquiet, and moral despair. They soughtfor the solace of the soul in deepthinking—philosophy and metaphysics.

The advance of the race out of thehazards of the primeval forest had alreadymade life possible—but it had not yetmade life reasonable. As a result, theGreek sages were intent not so much onself-preservation as on self-realization. .. (B 93).

They turned from the contemplation ofself-preservation—salvation—to self-realization and self-understanding.

[contd] And that was why they turnedfrom the childish vanities of theOlympian cult to the rigors of philosophy.Through philosophy, that trying discip-line of the mind which indefatigablygropes and claws its way in the hope thatat last it can uncover the why of allthings—through philosophy the learnedof Greece sought to attain that sense ofsecurity which we call salvation (B 93).

98:2.3 By rigorous thought the Greeksattempted to attain that consciousness ofsecurity which would serve as a substitutefor the belief in survival,

but they utterly failed. Only the moreintelligent among the higher classes of theHellenic peoples could grasp this newteaching; the rank and file of the progenyof the slaves of former generations had nocapacity for the reception of this newsubstitute for religion.

[Contrast Wr 116-17, 119.] 98:2.4 The philosophers disdained allforms of worship,

They struck off along paths that led tonew gods, or rather, to a new idea of god,of the One God, whom their new-foundlogic told them must be the ultimatesource of power in all the universe. [contdnext pg.]

10


Almost without exception the sages seemto have been conscious of some suchunifying God. Thales called Him “theIntelligence of the world.” The Stoicsdescribed Him as “the Helping of man byman.” Plato called Him “the Idea ofGood”. And so most of the otherphilosophers. . . (B 94).

notwithstanding that they practically allheld loosely to the background of a beliefin the Salem doctrine of “the Intelligenceof the universe,” “the idea of God” and“the Great Source.”

In so far as the Greek philosophers gaverecognition to the divine and the super-finite, they were frankly monotheistic;

For the most part they did not even botherto discuss the old religion and the oldgods. They simply shrugged theirshoulders at their mention, and passedthem by... (B 94).

they gave scant recognition to the wholegalaxy of Olympian gods and goddesses.


V— Attempted Reforms by Poets and Philosophers(Wright 114)

[contd from 98:1.6] The great poets ofthe sixth and fifth centuries attempted thistask.... Pindar described the gods as allwise and powerful, just and truthful.... Hebelieved in rewards and punishments bothon earth and in a future life. Aeschylusemphasized the divine punishment thatfollows sin from one generation toanother. Sophocles laid stress upon purityof heart and piety; he believed that theuniverse is moral throughout (Wr 114).

98:2.5 The Greek poets of the fifth andsixth centuries, notably Pindar, attemptedthe reformation of Greek religion.

They elevated its ideals,

But the poets were unable to make athorough reconstruction of religion....Moreover, they were primarily artists andnot religious specialists (Wr 115).

but they were more artists thanreligionists.

They failed to develop a technique forfostering and conserving supreme values.

11


[contd] The philosophers, too, soughtto effect changes in religion. At thebeginning of the fifth century B.C.,Xenophanes had satirized anthropo-morphic conceptions.... There is but onegod in the universe, and he is not like aman.

98:2.6 Xenophanes taught one God,

It is not certain whether Xenophanesthought the one god to be identical withthe universe (pantheism) or whether hebelieved this god to be an immanentbeing in it, who directs and controls it byhis thought (Wr 115).

but his deity concept was too pantheisticto be a personal Father to mortal man.

Anaxagoras (†428 B.C.) worked out athoroughly mechanical conception of theuniverse, except that he found itnecessary to posit an initial god or mind(Nous) to set the physical elements intomotion (Wr 115).

Anaxagoras was a mechanist except thathe did recognize a First Cause, an InitialMind.

Socrates (†399 B.C.) ... agreed with theSophists that morality is subject torevision and criticism, but he maintainedthat its fundamental principles standwhen thus criticized. Virtue isknowledge; honest inquiry both teacheswhat should be done and arouses thedesire to do it.

Socrates and his successors, Plato andAristotle, taught that virtue is knowledge;

Goodness is health of the soul; goodness, health of the soul;

it is better to suffer injustice at the handsof others than to be guilty of it oneself,

that it is better to suffer injustice than tobe guilty of it,

and it is wrong to return evil for evil. that it is wrong to return evil for evil,

He denounced all views or tales thatrepresented the gods other than wise andgood (Wr 116).

and that the gods are wise and good.

12


For Plato, the virtue of the individual manis modeled on the plan of the city state;for the state is the individual writ large....To be governed by reason, to be spiritedin action, to exercise self control overpassions and appetites, and to combine allin a symmetrical and well ordered life, isto possess the four cardinal virtues ofwisdom, courage, temperance, andjustice. Aristotle’s moral conceptions reston similar grounds (Wr 116).

Their cardinal virtues were: wisdom,courage, temperance, and justice.

X: JUDAISM (Wright 131)

I—Introduction (Wright 131)

[contd] The evolution of the Jewishreligion furnishes a contrast to that of theGreeks and Romans (Wr 131).

98:2.7 The evolution of religiousphilosophy among the Hellenic andHebrew peoples affords a contrastiveillustration of the function of the churchas an institution in the shaping of culturalprogress.

[See Matthew Arnold, “Hebraism and Hellenism,”Chapter 4 of Culture and Anarchy (1869).]

In Palestine, human thought was sopriest-controlled and scripture-directedthat philosophy and aesthetics wereentirely submerged in religion andmorality. In Greece, the almost completeabsence of priests and “sacred scriptures”left the human mind free and unfettered,resulting in a startling development indepth of thought. But religion as apersonal experience failed to keep pacewith the intellectual probings into thenature and reality of the cosmos.

98:2.8 In Greece, believing wassubordinated to thinking; in Palestine,thinking was held subject to believing.Much of the strength of Christianity isdue to its having borrowed heavily fromboth Hebrew morality and Greek thought.

13


98:2.9 In Palestine, religious dogmabecame so crystallized as to jeopardizefurther growth; in Greece, human thoughtbecame so abstract that the concept ofGod resolved itself into a misty vapor ofpantheistic speculation not at all unlikethe impersonal Infinity of the Brahmanphilosophers.


3. The masses take to magic—and the“mysteries”—the savior-god idea—how men triedto become divine. (Browne 94)

[contd] But the plain people, themasses, could not follow along the steep,narrow paths of hard reason up which thephilosophers clambered.

98:2.10 But the average men of thesetimes could not grasp, nor were theymuch interested in, the Greek philosophyof self-realization and an abstract Deity;

they rather craved promises of salvation,coupled with a personal God who couldhear their prayers.

Indeed, they sometimes resented thetemerity of those philosophers, andviolently dragged them down. Theyexiled Anaxagoras, and Protagoras, andput the great Socrates to death.... Withthem the vital problem was not self-realization, but still self-preservation. Forthey were still not at home in theuniverse. They were still afraid! . . . (B94-95).

They exiled the philosophers,

persecuted the remnants of the Salemcult, both doctrines having become muchblended,

Secret cults of mystic salvation arose inevery corner of the land, little sodalitiespreaching a religion of ecstatic hope andorgiastic practice. They were called“Mysteries,” (B 96) [continues in 98:4.5]

and made ready for that terrible orgiasticplunge into the follies of the mysterycults which were then overspreading theMediterranean lands.

14



VI—The Greek Mystery Religions (Wright 119)

The mysteries of Eleusis ... were arecognized part of the established religionof the Athenian city state. They made useof the myth that Persephone, the daughterof Demeter, had been snatched away andtaken down into Hades, from whence, asa result of her mother’s efforts she waspermitted to return to earth with theawakening life of the spring (Wr 120).

The Eleusinian mysteries grew up withinthe Olympian pantheon, a Greek versionof the worship of fertility;

The first and crudest of [the Greekmystery cults] was the worship ofDionysus (Bacchus),—the Thracian godof the grape and of wine,—which becamepopular as early as the sixth century B.C.(Wr 119).

Dionysus nature worship flourished;

the best of the cults was

The mysteries of Orpheus are supposedby some to have been the result of areform movement within the Dionysiaccult. In these the divine presence wasidentified with the heightening of aconsciousness afforded by aestheticpleasures, especially music,—a greatadvance in spirituality over alcoholicstimulation. The Orphic movement wasspread by missionaries and gathered itsconverts into societies, which celebratedinitiatory rites and sacraments, and wereguided by inspired scriptures. It was, inits way, a religion of redemption, offeringa more spiritual life to its adherents,through their worship of the god whowould sustain and support them by hispresence within them, and afford to thema share in his immortality (Wr 119-20).

the Orphic brotherhood, whose moralpreachments and promises of salvationmade a great appeal to many.

15


98:2.11 All Greece became involved inthese new methods of attaining salvation,these emotional and fiery ceremonials.No nation ever attained such heights ofartistic philosophy in so short a time;none ever created such an advancedsystem of ethics practically without Deityand entirely devoid of the promise ofhuman salvation; no nation ever plungedso quickly, deeply, and violently intosuch depths of intellectual stagnation,moral depravity, and spiritual poverty asthese same Greek peoples when theyflung themselves into the mad whirl ofthe mystery cults.

98:2.12 Religions have long enduredwithout philosophical support, but fewphilosophies, as such, have long persistedwithout some identification with religion.Philosophy is to religion as conception isto action. But the ideal human estate isthat in which philosophy, religion, andscience are welded into a meaningfulunity by the conjoined action of wisdom,faith, and experience.

16


3. THE MELCHIZEDEKTEACHINGS IN ROME

V: THE ROMANS (Browne 100)

1. Original worship of household spirits—the statereligion arises—and is intensified. (Browne 100)

98:3.1 Having grown out of the earlierreligious forms of worship of

[contd] The religious history of Rome... began, of course, in the universalprimitive belief that all objects areanimated by resident or roving spirits. Butthe chief of these spirits were of apeculiar type in Rome, being not tribalbut family deities. That was because theearly Romans were a farming folk dividednot into large units like tribes, but intosmall families (B 100).

the family gods

Harried by continual attacks of enemytribes, the little family groups were forcedto consolidate into the city-state of Rome;and then a state religion arose. It centeredchiefly around a god of war who wascalled Mars (it was just like the Romansto make a god of war their chief deity),and included the worship also of othergods, especially a sky-god, Jupiter, theRoman version of the Greek Zeus-pater(B 101).

into the tribal reverence for Mars, the godof war,

But there was no great fervor in the cult,for it was far more a political than areligious institution (B 101).

it was natural that the later religion of theLatins was more of a political observance

than were the intellectual systems of theGreeks and Brahmans or the morespiritual religions of several otherpeoples.

17


A distinct change did occur, however,about the sixth century B.C.

98:3.2 In the great monotheisticrenaissance of Melchizedek’s gospelduring the sixth century before Christ,

too few of the Salem missionariespenetrated Italy, and those who did wereunable to overcome the influence of

It came as an after-effect of the invasionof the Etruscans, a race with apparentlyhigher capacities for civilization than theoriginal Romans. They took over the statereligion and made it a thing of far greaterimportance than ever it had been before.New gods were introduced: Minerva,Diana, and others. A college of priestswas founded, and the priesthood wasorganized under a chief who was calledPontifex Maximus.

the rapidly spreading Etruscan priesthood

For the first time in the history of Rometemples were built, and images of thegods were placed in them and worshipped(B 102-03).

with its new galaxy of gods and temples,

all of which became organized into theRoman state religion.

[contd] But even then the state religionremained in large part a formal affair....The gods demanded that the vows thepeople made to them should be mostscrupulously observed; but they insistedon very little else. They were not immoralor venal, like the gods of the Olympianreligion,

This religion of the Latin tribes was nottrivial and venal like that of the Greeks,

but neither were they puritanically moralor tyrannically strict, like, for instance,the God of the Hebrews (B 103).

neither was it austere and tyrannical likethat of the Hebrews;

it consisted for the most part in theobservance of mere forms, vows, andtaboos.

18



VII—Religion in the Roman Republic (Wright120)

Southern Italy was Greek in culture andreligion, and when this region wasconquered by the Romans, the latter cameinto contact with the Greek gods.

98:3.3 Roman religion was greatlyinfluenced by extensive culturalimportations from Greece.

The worship of these was graduallyadopted in Rome, and in many casesGreek gods were identified with oldRoman deities who thus took on theanthropomorphic characteristics of theOlympians (Wr 121).

Eventually most of the Olympian godswere transplanted and incorporated intothe Latin pantheon.

II—Family Religion (Wright 109)

[contd] An important feature of the lifeof the early Greek home was the worshipof the hearth and the fire upon it (Wr109).

The Greeks long worshiped the fire of thefamily hearth—

In time, the values conserved by thesacred fire came to include the moralpurity of the home. The conservation ofmoral purity required a personal deity,and thus arose the idea of a goddess ofthe hearth, Hestia, a beautiful virgin, whostood for moral purity, and protecteddomestic relations (Wr 109).

Hestia was the virgin goddess of thehearth;

Among the Romans, Vesta was thecentral figure in the worship of the home(Wr 110).

Vesta was the Roman goddess of thehome.

Zeus became Jupiter; Aphrodite, Venus;and so on down through the manyOlympian deities.

19


III—The Religion of the Greek City State (Wright110)

In other religions, adolescentsexperience some kind of spiritualawakening and are initiated or confirmedinto the faith of their fathers. Greek andRoman youth at this age were solemnlyreceived into citizenship with religiousrites. Religious awakening with them wasa conscious consecration to the service ofthe state (Wr 110-11).

98:3.4 The religious initiation ofRoman youths was the occasion of theirsolemn consecration to the service of thestate.

The Greek city state employedreligion in the endeavor to conserve all ofits values.... “Important acts of State wereaccompanied by sacrifice; the religiousoath was administered to magistrates,jurymen and other officials; theadmission of youth into the ranks of thecitizens was a religious ceremony” (Wr111).

Oaths and admissions to citizenship werein reality religious ceremonies.

Oracles were always consulted in crises,and whenever an important politicaldecision had to be made.... Athens andother Greek cities were thronged withaltars, shrines and temples (Wr 111).

The Latin peoples maintained temples,altars, and shrines and, in a crisis, wouldconsult the oracles.

[contd] The city state also madeprovision for the worship of lessersupernatural beings. Heroes were men,who according to tradition had foundedcities or families, or done great deeds.Their bones were carefully preserved, andwere revered at their tombs (Wr 111).

They preserved the bones of heroes

The Christian saints who ultimatelyreplaced these local heroes, to this dayconserve much the same values for thepopulations of village communities inMediterranean lands (Wr 112).

and later on those of the Christian saints.

20



2. Why the state religion failed—the coming of themysteries—Cybele—Attis—the other foreign cults.(Browne 103)

[contd] Of course, such a religion,clean but not very exciting, proper but notvery compelling, could not persist forlong. Between 500 and 200 B.C. itdeteriorated and sank into almostcomplete bankruptcy (B 103).

98:3.5 This formal and unemotionalform of pseudoreligious patriotism wasdoomed to collapse,

even as the highly intellectual and artisticworship of the Greeks had gone downbefore the fervid and deeply emotionalworship of the mystery cults.

The greatest of these devastating cultswas the mystery religion of

As early as 200 B.C. the cult of Cybele,“the Great Mother of the Gods,” wasbrought to the city.

the Mother of God sect,

Imported from Asia Minor, where it mayhave developed out of the old Babylonianworship of Ishtar, this mystery found itschief sanctuary on the Vatican Hill—almost on the precise spot where thebasilica of St. Peters now stands. There,and wherever else in the empire the culthad a following, spring festivals of almostunbelievable bestiality were held (B 104).

which had its headquarters, in those days,on the exact site of the present church ofSt. Peter’s in Rome.

The Roman legions had gone out toconquer all the world, only to come backconquered by all its gods (B 104).

98:3.6 The emerging Roman stateconquered politically but was in turnconquered by the cults, rituals, mysteries,and god concepts of Egypt, Greece, andthe Levant.

Indeed, it is quite impossible to give adefinitive account of all the mystery godsand goddesses whose cults werepermitted to flourish in imperial Rome (B106).

These imported cults continued toflourish throughout the Roman state

21


3. Augustus restores the state religion—the god-emperor—the reaction—the Cynics. (Browne 107)

up to the time of Augustus,

It was solely in order to make [his]empire firm that [Augustus] set himselfthe task of reviving the old religion. Hecould not possibly use the alien mysteriesto attain that end, for those mysterieswere in their very nature a divisive andnot a cohesive force.... So Augustus sawno reason to favor the mysteries. On thecontrary, he sought to drive them out ofexistence by lending all his power andprestige to the moribund state religion.

who, purely for political and civicreasons, made a heroic and somewhatsuccessful effort to destroy the mysteriesand revive the older political religion.

[In earlier times there had been a single god who,above all others, protected the state,—JupiterStator. [Etc.] (Wright 122)]

98:3.7 One of the priests of the statereligion told Augustus of the earlierattempts of the Salem teachers to spreadthe doctrine of one God, a final Deitypresiding over all supernatural beings;and this idea took such a firm hold on theemperor that

He built great temples everywhere,equipping them with beautiful idols of theold gods.

he built many temples, stocked them wellwith beautiful images,

He thoroughly reorganized the priest-hood, making himself its head.

reorganized the state priesthood, re-established the state religion, appointedhimself acting high priest of all,

Then he went further—a long, long wayfurther.... By a decree of his own asEmperor, he made himself the DeitySupreme! He commanded that theguardian spirit of his own person, his“Genius,” be worshipped in every citythroughout the empire; and poets andwriters were hired to invent legendstelling how he, Augustus, had beenoriginally fashioned in heaven andmiraculously brought to the world to saveit.

and as emperor did not hesitate toproclaim himself the supreme god.

22


And as long as he lived, this religion hebuilt around himself flourishedeverywhere in the empire—

98:3.8 This new religion of Augustusworship flourished and was observedthroughout the empire during his lifetime

everywhere save, of course, in Palestine,where dwelt the Jews (B 107-08).

except in Palestine, the home of the Jews.

[contd] But even the revival underAugustus could not stay the debacle ofthe old religion. On the contrary, it mayperhaps have hastened it. It but openedthe way for one more corroding element:the human gods. Succeeding emperorsemulated Augustus, deifying themselves,and sometimes also their wives, theirmistresses, even their lewd boy-companions.

And this era of the human gods continued

In time there were almost forty names onthe roster of these monstrous gods! (B108)

until the official Roman cult had a rosterof more than twoscore self-elevatedhuman deities,

all claiming miraculous births and othersuperhuman attributes.

[contd] There seemed to be but onesane element left, the Cynics.... TheCynics of that time were preachingphilosophers,

98:3.9 The last stand of the dwindlingband of Salem believers was made by anearnest group of preachers, the Cynics,

exalted souls who felt themselves calledupon to drag the people out of thesinkholes of superstition in which theyfloundered.

These Cynics stood on the corners of themarket-place, or on temple steps, andharangued the people to abjure the wildexistences they were leading and go backto the simple, natural life. They assuredthem there was but one way of Salvation:common sense (B 108-09).

who exhorted the Romans to abandontheir wild and senseless religious rituals

23


and return to a form of worshipembodying Melchizedek’s gospel as ithad been modified and contaminatedthrough contact with the philosophy ofthe Greeks.

4. Why decadent Rome took to themysteries—Mithras—its significance. (Browne109)

[contd] But, despite all their devotionand eagerness, it was impossible for thoseCynics to work any profound change intheir fellow-men. The people could not besatisfied with the little joys afforded bycommon sense.... They wanted passion,excitement! . . .

But the people at large rejected theCynics;

And so now even more than before theytook to the mysteries (B 109).

they preferred to plunge into the rituals ofthe mysteries, which not only offeredhopes of personal salvation but alsogratified the desire for diversion,excitement, and entertainment.

4. THE MYSTERY CULTS


IX—Mystery Religions in the Roman Empire(Wright 123)

[contd] The masses of people inRoman imperial times, as well as theclasses, had lost much of the earlier faithin the old gods of family and statereligion.

98:4.1 The majority of people in theGreco-Roman world, having lost theirprimitive family and state religions

And they were not intellectual enough togain help from philosophy.

and being unable or unwilling to grasp themeaning of Greek philosophy,

So they turned to the extravagant andimposing religious cults that came intothe Graeco-Roman world from Egypt andthe Orient (Wr 123).

turned their attention to the spectacularand emotional mystery cults from Egyptand the Levant.

24


[contd] The Romans of the empirewere attracted to mystery religionsthrough much the same motives that hadinfluenced Greeks in the same directionfrom an earlier time—desire for personalimmortality and for some assurance ofdivine favor and support in this life.

The common people craved promises ofsalvation—religious consolation for todayand assurances of hope for immortalityafter death.

Three mystery religions had widepopularity and influence. In order ofincreasing importance these were:

98:4.2 The three mystery cults whichbecame most popular were:

the cult of Cybele and her son Attis,which had originated in Phrygia; 98:4.3 1. The Phrygian cult of Cybele

and her son Attis.

that of Isis and her son Osiris, twoEgyptian deities; 98:4.4 2. The Egyptian cult of Osiris

and his mother Isis.

and that of Mithra, which was probably ofPersian origin. 98:4.5 3. The Iranian cult of the

worship of Mithras as the savior andredeemer of sinful mankind.

In each of the first two mentioned thecentral idea is this: the goddess had losther son by death, and had succeeded ineffecting his resurrection;

98:4.6 The Phrygian and Egyptianmysteries taught that the divine son(respectively Attis and Osiris) hadexperienced death and had beenresurrected by divine power,

those who are properly initiated into themysteries and celebrate the anniversary ofthe god’s death with mourning and that ofhis resurrection with rejoicing

and further that all who were properlyinitiated into the mystery, and whoreverently celebrated the anniversary ofthe god’s death and resurrection,

thereby become partakers of his divinenature and immortality.

would thereby become partakers of hisdivine nature and his immortality.

The ceremonies connected with thePhrygian religion were imposing andemotionally exciting; unfortunately theyretained gross features of their savageorigin (Wr 123-24).

98:4.7 The Phrygian ceremonies wereimposing but degrading;

25


their bloody festivals indicate howdegraded and primitive these Levantinemysteries became.


2: Why the state religion failed—the coming of themysteries—Cybele—Attis—the other foreign cults.(Browne 103)

Closely associated with this orgiasticworship of Cybele there was also theworship of her lover, Attis. This god Attiswas believed to have been conceivedimmaculately in the womb of a virgin,and was said to have died of self-immolation at the base of a tree.... His“passion” was enacted every spring inRome, much as the “passion” of Osiriswas enacted annually in Egypt. Thefestival began with a “day of blood”—thepagan Black Friday—commemorating thedeath of the young god;

The most holy day was Black Friday, the“day of blood,” commemorating theself-inflicted death of Attis.

and after three days it reached a climax inthe “day of joy,” commemorating thegod’s resurrection. . . (B 106).

After three days of the celebration of thesacrifice and death of Attis the festivalwas turned to joy in honor of hisresurrection.



[contd from 98:4.4] The religion of Isis wasmore refined, coming as it did from anolder civilization. Its ritual was beautifuland impressive, its temples imposing; thesecrecy of the ceremonies aroused theawe of the initiates; there were elementsof spirituality in the worship (Wr 124).

98:4.8 The rituals of the worship of Isisand Osiris were more refined andimpressive than were those of thePhrygian cult.

26



3. The masses take to magic—and the“mysteries”—the savior-god idea—how men triedto become divine. (Browne 94)

This Egyptian ritual was built around thelegend of the Nile god of old,

[contd from 98:2.10] and almost withoutexception they circled around the idea ofa god who died and was resurrected. a god who died and was resurrected,

As we have already seen, that idea wasobviously inspired by the sight of theannual death and rebirth of the crops (B96).

which concept was derived from theobservation of the annually recurringstoppage of vegetation growth followedby the springtime restoration of all livingplants.

A man had only to eat the flesh andguzzle the blood of the animal sacred tohis savior-god, whirl around in orgiasticpassion, hack at his own flesh in madness,and shout, scream, howl to the skies, andthen in a moment of frenzy—an“enthusiasm” it was called in Greek—hewas of a sudden overwhelmed by theconviction that he actually was the god!(B 97)

The frenzy of the observance of thesemystery cults and the orgies of theirceremonials, which were supposed to leadup to the “enthusiasm” of the realizationof divinity, were sometimes mostrevolting.

5. THE CULT OF MITHRAS



[contd from 98:3.9] It is true that the cults ofCybele, Isis, and Bacchus began to wanea little in their popularity; but that wasonly because a new cult had come to taketheir places. It was the cult of Mithras, (B109) [continues in 98:5.2]

98:5.1 The Phrygian and Egyptianmysteries eventually gave way before thegreatest of all the mystery cults, theworship of Mithras.

27




[contd from 98:4.5] The mysteries ofMithra appealed primarily to soldiers.

The Mithraic cult made its appeal to awide range of human nature and graduallysupplanted both of its predecessors.

Legions were doubtless often recruited inthe east, where the religion had its home,and wherever these legions were latersent, the disciples of Mithra in thembecame active propagandists. So ruins ofMithraeums are found to-day all along theformer frontiers of the Roman empire(where there were military camps), aswell as in the city and seaport of ancientRome itself (Wr 124).

Mithraism spread over the Roman Empirethrough the propagandizing of Romanlegions recruited in the Levant, where thisreligion was the vogue, for they carriedthis belief wherever they went.



It was in all respects a purer mystery thanthose that had proceeded it. It had adistinct ethical content, and showed littletendency to encourage riotous andorgiastic practices.... Though equallyfervent, it was less hysterical than itsrivals; though just as certain of itsvalidity, it was far less given to emotionalexcess (B 111).

And this new religious ritual was a greatimprovement over the earlier mysterycults.

[contd from 98:5.1] imported from Persia,where it had arisen out of those primitiveelements which the prophet Zoroaster hadfailed to stamp out (B 109).

98:5.2 The cult of Mithras arose in Iranand long persisted in its homeland despitethe militant opposition of the followers ofZoroaster.

28


[See 95:6.7, and compare George Foot Moore’sHistory of Religions, Vol. 1 (1913), p. 598ff.]

But by the time Mithraism reached Rome,it had become greatly improved by theabsorption of many of Zoroaster’steachings. It was chiefly through theMithraic cult that Zoroaster’s religionexerted an influence upon later appearingChristianity.



Mithra was a mythological deity whosprang miraculously into life from a rock

98:5.3 The Mithraic cult portrayed amilitant god taking origin in a great rock,

and performed all sorts of heroic deeds,such as would appeal to the admiration ofsoldiers. He overcame the sun god andmade him his faithful vassal and ally. Hischief exploit was a painful journey to killa bull that was working great destructionto mankind (Wr 124).

engaging in valiant exploits,

In the course of his exploits he struck arock with arrows and water gushed forth.

and causing water to gush forth from arock struck with his arrows.

Later on, there came a flood, from whichone man, secretly advised by the gods,built a boat and escaped with his cattle.

There was a flood from which one manescaped in a specially built boat

Mithra celebrated a Last Supper with theSun God and other companions, afterwhich he ascended into the heavens (Wr124-25).

and a last supper which Mithrascelebrated with the sun-god before heascended into the heavens.

[Compare: In the age when the great gods ofwestern Asia, especially the warrior gods, werebeing identified with the sun, Mithra followed thefashion ... Sol Invictus Mithras is his common titlein Latin inscriptions, and as the day of the Syriansolar Baals waned, Sol Invictus without a namemeant Mithras.... In the reliefs in the Mithræa,however, Mithras is distinct from the sun god, withwhom he is frequently represented in converse; themyth had been fixed before the identification wasthought of (George Foot Moore, History ofReligions, Vol. 1 [1913], p. 597).]

This sun-god, or Sol Invictus, was adegeneration of the Ahura-Mazda deityconcept of Zoroastrianism.

29




Mithras grew up to be the most strenuouschampion of the sun-god in his waragainst the god of darkness,

Mithras was conceived as the survivingchampion of the sun-god in his strugglewith the god of darkness.

and the climax of his career was a life-and-death struggle with a mythical sacredbull. By finally slaying this bull andletting its blood flood the earth, Mithrasgave life to the soil, and earnedimmortality for himself.

And in recognition of his slaying themythical sacred bull, Mithras was madeimmortal,

Straightway he was exalted to the abodeof the Immortals, and there he dwelt asthe divine protector of all the faithful onearth. . . (B 110).

being exalted to the station of intercessorfor the human race among the gods onhigh.

[contd] Long before the advent ofChristianity we find a significant religionand an elaborate ritual crystallizingaround that legend of Mithras. To this daythere exist along the Danube and inNorthern Africa certain subterraneancaves in which are statues and carvingsdepicting scenes in the tale. Those caveswere the secret churches of theMithraists, 98:5.4 The adherents of this cult

worshiped in caves and other secretplaces,

and in them all manner of magic riteswere once performed.

chanting hymns, mumbling magic, eatingthe flesh of the sacrificial animals, anddrinking the blood.

Three times a day, with especialelaborateness on the Sun-day

Three times a day they worshiped, withspecial weekly ceremonials on the day ofthe sun-god

30


and the twenty-fifth of December, theMithras priests offered services in thecaves. Libations were poured, bells wererung, hymns were chanted, and manycandles were burnt. Above all, holysacraments were administered to theinitiated. The flesh of a sacrificial animalwas eaten, and its blood was drunk, andthus the celebrants were thought to takeon the divinity and immortality of theblessed lord, Mithras.

and with the most elaborate observance ofall on the annual festival of Mithras,December twenty-fifth.

By a primitive process of reasoningwhich we have already described inconnection with the Cybele cult, theMithraists galloped to the comfortingconclusion that the mere consumption ofthe supposed flesh and blood of the godassured them of life everlasting.

It was believed that the partaking of thesacrament ensured eternal life,

When they died on this earth theyexpected to ascend to Heaven throughseven gates, unlocked by seven keyswhich the Mithras priests possessed, andin Heaven they hoped to dwell withMithras until the final Judgment Day.

the immediate passing, after death, to thebosom of Mithras, there to tarry in blissuntil the judgment day.

On the judgment day the Mithraic keys ofheaven would unlock the gates ofParadise for the reception of the faithful;

All the unbaptized, both living and dead,were to be totally annihilated on thatJudgment Day. Only the redeemed wereto be saved, and Mithras, come to earth asecond and final time, would administerto each of them a last sacrament, and thencause them to inherit the world in peaceand blessedness forevermore. . . (B 111).

whereupon all the unbaptized of theliving and the dead would be annihilatedupon the return of Mithras to earth.

31




[contd from 98:5.3] When a man dies, hissoul goes to face Mithra after death, andhe is judged according to his deserts.

It was taught that, when a man died, hewent before Mithras for judgment,

At the end of the world, Mithra shallsummon the dead from their graves andhold a Last Judgment.

and that at the end of the world Mithraswould summon all the dead from theirgraves to face the last judgment.

The wicked shall be consumed in fire,while the faithful shall reign with Mithraforever (Wr 125).

The wicked would be destroyed by fire,and the righteous would reign withMithras forever.

Only men were initiated into thesemysteries.

98:5.5 At first it was a religion only formen,

It was a kind of free masonry; there wereseven different orders into which theworshipper might successively beinitiated (Wr 124).

and there were seven different orders intowhich believers could be successivelyinitiated.

The fact that ruins of temples of the GreatMother are often found in proximity tothose of Mithra has led to the suppositionthat the wives and daughters of thefollowers of Mithra worshipped Cybeleand Attis (Wr 124).

Later on, the wives and daughters ofbelievers were admitted to the temples ofthe Great Mother, which adjoined theMithraic temples.

The women’s cult was a mixture ofMithraic ritual and the ceremonies of thePhrygian cult of Cybele, the mother ofAttis.

32


6 . M I T H R A I S M A N DCHRISTIANITY

I—Introduction (Wright 108)

98:6.1 Prior to the coming of themystery cults and Christianity,

Among both Greeks and Romans,religious endeavor, so far as it everbecame really effectual, was a function ofthe family and the city state. It conservedthe values of these institutions, and waschiefly of aid to the individual in relationto them. Thus subordinated, religion didnot develop as an independent institution.

personal religion hardly developed as anindependent institution in the civilizedlands of North Africa and Europe;

it was more of a family, city-state,political, and imperial affair.

Religious worship never becamecentralized.

The Hellenic Greeks never evolved acentralized worship system;

Each local shrine had its own ritual,handed down by tradition from one priestto his successor.

the ritual was local;

The priesthood never became a specialprofessional class like the Brahmins. Nogreat order like the Buddhist brotherhoodarose.

they had no priesthood

There were no sacred books like theVedas, and no authoritative body ofdoctrine (Wr 108).

and no “sacred book.”

33


But the problems of associated lifepresently became complex andirreducible to the simpler conceptions oflife in the earlier family and city state;individuals came to feel spiritual needstoo profound to be conserved throughanthropomorphic gods and goddesses, nomatter how lovely in aesthetic form. Theold pagan religions of Greece and Romewere unable to meet these problems, andcollapsed. Their failure was chiefly due totheir lack of a satisfactory Agency for theconservation of their higher values (Wr108-09).

Much as the Romans, their religiousinstitutions lacked a powerful drivingagency for the preservation of highermoral and spiritual values.

While it is true that the institutional-ization of religion has usually detractedfrom its spiritual quality, it is also a factthat no religion has thus far succeeded insurviving without the aid of institutionalorganization of some degree, greater orlesser.

V—Attempted Reforms by Poets and Philosophers(Wright 114)

[See Wr 118-19.] 98:6.2 Occidental religion thuslanguished until the days of the Skeptics,Cynics, Epicureans, and Stoics,


but most important of all, until

From the second to the fourthcentury, A.D., the most vigorous rival ofChristianity was probably the religion ofMithra (Wr 124).

the times of the great contest betweenMithraism and Paul’s new religion ofChristianity.

If in the second or third century A.D.,a visitor had entered a place devoted tothe worship of Mithra, and then onedevoted to the worship of Christ, hewould have found many similar features.

98:6.3 During the third century afterChrist, Mithraic and Christian churcheswere very similar both in appearance andin the character of their ritual.

34


In each case, the place of worship wouldhave been likely to have been under-ground.

A majority of such places of worshipwere underground,

There would have been a nave and sideaisles, and an upraised place where stoodthe altar. Behind the altar, or above it,there would probably have been a work ofart depicting the suffering on the part of agod in human form, suffering throughwhich it was thought salvation comes tomen (Wr 125).

and both contained altars whosebackgrounds variously depicted thesufferings of the savior who had broughtsalvation to a sin-cursed human race.

On entering either Mithraeum orChristian church, worshippers dippedtheir fingers into holy water.

98:6.4 Always had it been the practiceof Mithraic worshipers, on entering thetemple, to dip their fingers in holy water.

And since in some districts there werethose who at one time belonged to bothreligions, they introduced this custom intothe majority of the Christian churches inthe vicinity of Rome.

Initiates to both religions were baptized,and partook of the bloodless sacrifice ofbread and wine (Wr 125).

Both religions employed baptism andpartook of the sacrament of bread andwine.

[Mithraism] probably differed chieflyfrom Christianity in putting moreemphasis on physical courage and othermasculine virtues, and less upon morefeminine virtues like love, meekness, pity,and endurance.... It also differed fromChristianity in making more of loyaltyand devotion to the empire and emperor.Above all, it differed in emphasizing themilitary virtues, whereas the Christians ofthose times were often pacifists andthought all warfare wrong (Wr 125-26).

The one great difference betweenMithraism and Christianity, aside fromthe characters of Mithras and Jesus, wasthat the one encouraged militarism whilethe other was ultrapacific.

35


But the very tolerance of Mithraismprevented it from developing into acompletely spiritual religion. It could notfree itself wholly from primitivesuperstitions.

Mithraism’s tolerance for other religions(except later Christianity) led to its finalundoing.

But the deciding factor in the strugglebetween the two was

With no room for women to participate inits worship, it lacked the support of thosewho always have been the mainstay ofChristianity (“last at the cross and first atthe tomb”).... [Christianity’s] communionincluded women as well as men (Wr126).

the admission of women into the fullfellowship of the Christian faith.

98:6.5 In the end the nominal Christianfaith dominated the Occident.

X—The Debt of Modern Religion to Greece andRome (Wright 126)

Nevertheless, the present-dayreligions of the west, both Christian andJewish, owe a very great deal to theGreeks and Romans.

First, on the side of the recognition ofvalues. The Old Testament and the New,taken literally, contain no such clearlydeveloped conceptions of social andpolitical justice as are to be found in theteaching of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, andthe Stoics. [Etc.] (Wr 127)

Greek philosophy supplied the conceptsof ethical value;

On the side of ritual, the Christiansacraments of baptism and the Lord’ssupper are strikingly similar to themystery religions. [Etc.] (Wr 128) Mi thra i sm, the r i t ua l o f worsh ip

observance;

[[The] ultimate failure of Greek and Romanreligions was one of inadequacy in finding anAgency through which to seek the conservation oftheir socially recognized values (Wr 127).]

and Christianity, as such, the techniquefor the conservation of moral and socialvalues.

36


7. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

98:7.1 A Creator Son did not incarnatein the likeness of mortal flesh and bestowhimself upon the humanity of Urantia toreconcile an angry God but rather to winall mankind to the recognition of theFather’s love and to the realization oftheir sonship with God. After all, even thegreat advocate of the atonement doctrinerealized something of this truth, for hedeclared that

[To wit, that God was in Christ, reconcilingthe world unto himself, not imputing theirtrespasses unto them; and hath committed unto usthe word of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19).]

“God was in Christ reconciling the worldto himself.”

98:7.2 It is not the province of thispaper to deal with the origin anddissemination of the Christian religion.Suffice it to say that it is built around theperson of Jesus of Nazareth, the humanlyincarnate Michael Son of Nebadon,

BOOK SEVEN: WHAT HAPPENED INEUROPE (Browne 257)

II: CHRIST (Browne 276)

2. The story of Saul of Tarsus. (Browne 279)

Christos is the Greek word for “AnointedOne,” and Saul, whose mother tonguewas Greek, built his whole personal faitharound that word (B 281).

known to Urantia as the Christ, theanointed one.

4. Jesus becomes the Christ—the compromiseswith paganism—the superiority of Christianity—the writing of the Gospels—persecution by Rome.(Browne 284)

Christianity was spread throughout theLevant and Occident by the followers ofthis Galilean,

37


There was a zeal, a missionary ardor, inthe early church that was largelyunknown in the older cults (B 286).

and their missionary zeal equaled that oftheir illustrious predecessors, the Sethitesand Salemites, as well as that of theirearnest Asiatic contemporaries, theBuddhist teachers.

98:7.3 The Christian religion, as aUrantian system of belief, arose throughthe compounding of the followingteachings, influences, beliefs, cults, andpersonal individual attitudes:

98:7.4 1. The Melchizedek teachings,which are a basic factor in all thereligions of Occident and Orient that havearisen in the last four thousand years.

98:7.5 2. The Hebraic system ofmorality, ethics, theology, and belief inboth Providence and the supremeYahweh.

[Compare G.F. Moore, op cit., and 170:1.] 98:7.6 3. The Zoroastrian conception ofthe struggle between cosmic good andevil, which had already left its imprint onboth Judaism and Mithraism. Throughprolonged contact attendant upon thestruggles between Mithraism andChristianity, the doctrines of the Iranianprophet became a potent factor indetermining the theologic and philosophiccast and structure of the dogmas, tenets,and cosmology of the Hellenized andLatinized versions of the teachings ofJesus.

38


98:7.7 4. The mystery cults, especiallyMithraism

7. The spread of Christianity—the ethical elementin Christianity—how it sobered Europe. (Browne293)

Much of the old love for Isis, andespecially for Cybele, the great Mother ofthe Gods, was taken over into the churchand translated into the worship of Mary,the Mother of Christ. . . (B 294).

but also the worship of the Great Motherin the Phrygian cult.


4. The desire for a future life—and how themysteries satisfied it. (Browne 109)

Even the legends of the birth of Jesus onUrantia became tainted with the Romanversion of the miraculous birth of theIranian savior-hero, Mithras,

The root of the mystery was anancient Persian legend which told of adivine hero named Mithras whosemiraculous birth had been witnessed onlyby a few shepherds come from afar withgifts to adore the wonder-child (B 110).

whose advent on earth was supposed tohave been witnessed by only a handful ofgift-bearing shepherds

who had been informed of this impendingevent by angels.



[contd from 98:6.4] Instead of a mythicalhero, Christianity had the advantage of anhistoric man, who had led a blameless lifein recent times, as its Founder (Wr 126).

98:7.8 5. The historic fact of the humanlife of Joshua ben Joseph, the reality ofJesus of Nazareth as the glorified Christ,the Son of God.

39



2. The story of Saul of Tarsus. (Browne 279)

98:7.9 6. The personal viewpoint ofPaul of Tarsus.

And it should be recorded that

Most important of all, [Paul] must veryearly have learnt from slaves in thehousehold, or from Gentile playmates, ofthe mystery cults which were prevalent inhis native city, and of the savior-gods inwhom the masses put their impassionedtrust. . . (B 279-80).

Mithraism was the dominant religion ofTarsus during his adolescence.

Paul little dreamed that his well-intentioned letters to his converts wouldsomeday be regarded by still laterChristians as the “word of God.” Suchwell-meaning teachers must not be heldaccountable for the use made of theirwritings by later-day successors.

1. The mysteries in the Roman Empire—thephilosophies. (Browne 276)

And side by side with these religiouscults flourishing among the lowerelements in the population of the Empire,different schools of philosophic thoughtflourished among the more learned folk.One of these was the philosophydeveloped in the city of Alexandria by anEgyptian Jew named Philo (Wr 278).

98:8.10 7. The philosophic thought ofthe Hellenistic peoples, from Alexandriaand Antioch through Greece to Syracuseand Rome.

[Compare Glover passage in 195:0.7.] The philosophy of the Greeks was morein harmony with Paul’s version ofChristianity than with any other currentreligious system and became an importantfactor in the success of Christianity in theOccident.

40


IX: GREECE AND ROMAN (Wright108)

V—Attempted Reforms by Poets and Philosophers(Wright 114)

[contd from 98:2.6] Man’s virtues as anindividual and as a citizen, Aristotle setforth in detail so effectively that his workmay be said to form the basis ofsystematic ethics for subsequentEuropean thought down to the presenttime (Wr 116).

Greek philosophy, coupled with Paul’stheology, still forms the basis ofEuropean ethics.

98:7.11 As the original teachings ofJesus penetrated the Occident, theybecame Occidentalized, and as theybecame Occidentalized, they began tolose their potentially universal appeal toall races and kinds of men. Christianity,today, has become a religion well adaptedto the social, economic, and politicalmores of the white races.


8. The development of the Church—Protestantism—why Christianity has succeeded.(Browne 298)

Once Paul came on the scene, the light ofthe religion of Jesus began to fade,

It has long since ceased to be the religionof Jesus,

and the glare of the religion about Christblazed over all (B 298-99).

although it still valiantly portrays abeautiful religion about Jesus to suchindividuals as sincerely seek to follow inthe way of its teaching. It has glorifiedJesus as the Christ, the Messianicanointed one from God, but has largelyforgotten the Master’s personal gospel:the Fatherhood of God and the universalbrotherhood of all men.

41


[And with that word we must leave the tale ofwhat happened in Europe. The story of Christianityis long and bewildering,

98:7.12 And this is the long story of theteachings of Machiventa Melchizedek onUrantia.

for it stretches through twenty centuries and iswritten in a hundred tongues (B 300-01).

It is nearly four thousand years since thisemergency Son of Nebadon bestowedhimself on Urantia,

It has taken rich and poor, learned and ignorant,white, red, yellow, and black—it has taken them alland tried to show them a way of salvation (B 301). and in that time the teachings of the

“priest of El Elyon, the Most High God,”have penetrated to all races and peoples.

In a word, it has worked—in a measure. . . (B301).]

And Machiventa was successful inachieving the purpose of his unusualbestowal;

when Michael made ready to appear onUrantia, the God concept was existent inthe hearts of men and women, the sameGod concept that still flames anew in theliving spiritual experience of the manifoldchildren of the Universal Father as theylive their intriguing temporal lives on thewhirling planets of space.

98:7.13 [Presented by a Melchizedek ofNebadon.]

42

Date post:	24-Mar-2021
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	0 times
Download:	0 times

Paper 98 - 'Melchizedek Teachings in the Occident' Parallel Chart · 2020. 8. 4. · arbiter of...

Documents