Hey Y'all...

My older brother was in town recently and we got talking about Theology... He mentioned reading somewhere that the Mystery Religions of ancient Rome were SOOOO Christian-like, that many cross relics were found and carbon dated to well before the Birth of Christ... And other such stuff... Can someone provide me with info... I cannot find any information on these supposed facts... All my searches for this religion usually pull up anti-catholic (but still Christian) websites... It seems my brothers information was trying to discredit Christianity all together...

Oh... I do remember one more thing... He said in ancient Rome there were the inner mysteries and the outer mysteries... Christianity is the outer mysteries, and the inner has been lost... Or something like that...

FJ

He's been reading Alexander Hislop or his followers again.

Any good websites I can go to? I don't care to invest in any books on the subject...

FJ

www.tektonics.org Has a lot of stuff on it

Whew....I thought that this thread was going to be about a really bad parish that you went to.

I have been reading "The Christ of Faith" by Karl Adam. It did go over this in a chapter. It's pretty cheap (used) and the whole book is awesome. Or I could post some points for you later on this.

There is a passage in one of Justin Martyr's letters to the Emperor where he complains about the followers of Mithras because they are copying everything the Roman Catholic Church is doing.

We were copied.

We did not copy.

Pax, if I were wearing a hat, I'd take it off to you.

You must also remember that most of the scholarship which people based these similarities on was Cumont's study of Mithraism that was completely discounted after a conference in 1975. Now, Cumont's fatal mistake was the fact that he assumed that the Mithraism of Rome was evolved from the Mithraism of Persia and divers areas. But newer scholarship discounts this and views Roman Mithraism as something completely invented by the Romans, using Persian names to add an exotic flair to their esoteric society.

So little is known about Mithraism, that it would be impossible to say who copied whom.

I have read that the corss is a pagan symbol too. And, not just the even sided one either and crosses were around before Jesus.

What's interesting is before his crucifixion, Jesus talks about bearing the cross. This supports even more in my opinion that he is divine.

Since the cross was a standard tool in the roman's toolbox for executions (remember citiizens got the sword) of non romans, it would be no surprise that the cross was a common symbol.

Please, Sean. You are generally a nice fellow, but this is reprehensible.