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mystery Early Christians treated Jesus as something like Orpheus, the god to which a pious mystery religion was devoted. A mystery two thousand years ago, however, was very different from a mystery today. The heyday of mystery religions was, not coincidentally, the first three centuries of the Christian church. As Christianity was spreading through the Roman empire, so were religions devoted to Demeter, Dionysus, Orpheus, and others. Christianity resembled these cults in general, with initiations, common meals, personal religious experience, and personal salvation. Of the major cults, Christianity most closely resembled the one devoted to Orpheus. Like Jesus, Orpheus was the son of a deity, and he had descended into the underworld and returned. Orpheus’s cult followed a set of sacred scriptures comprising Orpheus’s teachings, and it required an abstinent lifestyle. While the Dionysaic and Eleusinian mysteries involved the whole community in festivals, the Orphics were concerned with the individual sinner struggling to live a pious life, in preparation for the judgment that comes to each soul at death. The word “mystery” originally referred to cult secrets that only insiders know. In this sense, the concept is akin to the term occult, which originally meant “hidden,” as in “forbidden books of occult lore.” It refers to the eyes and ears being closed, alluding to secrecy. Today, Christians use the term to mean something that even they don’t really understand. The true nature of the trinity, for example, is a mystery not because only Christians understand it but instead because _not_even_ Christians understand it. The concept of mystery is now used as a dodge. What sense does the trinity make? It’s a sacred mystery! How can bread and wine turn into God’s flesh while still looking and tasting for all the world like bread and wine? It’s a mystery! Roman catholic priests even added the phrase “mystery of faith” to Jesus’ words of institution, said at the point in the mass when the bread and wine turn into God’s flesh and blood. More recently, why have Catholic priests been raping so many boys and young men? It’s the mystery of sin! In 2002, in response to explosive Catholic sex scandals, Pope John Paul II pled “mysterium iniquitatis” (mystery of iniquity), when in fact it’s no mystery at all that you get into trouble when you take unmarried men and assign them private authority over vulnerable people, and then cover it up for decades. For another pagan religion that is strikingly similar to early Christianity, see Mithraism.
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contents table of contents you're already looking at it introduction for the inquisitive reader biographical overview who he was and wasn't
afterlife not Jesus' concern animal sacrifice bloodless religion apocalypse did Jesus preach hellfire? baptism sin wash for Jesus and others beatitudes Jesus' words and others' words beloved disciple witness for the un-gospel bible scripture old and new bishop the unjesus body focus on the physical Buddha Jesus' close kin charity key Christian virtue and legacy of Jesus The Da Vinci Code secret (and false) messages divorce women's status dreams convenient literary device Elijah Jewish prophet with his own second coming equality ancient source of modern egalitarianism exorcist Jesus and demons failure reinterpreting Jesus as a failure faith from trust to blind belief father Jesus on titles of honor Francis of Assisi the most Christlike Christian Gandhi the 20th century's most Christly holy man Galilee Jesus' inauspicious homeland gentiles Jesus' inadvertent audience god how Jesus became god golden rule key to Jesus' success gospels competing accounts heaven from sky to spiritual home hell revenge fantasy humanism Jesus' legacy inerrant Christian treatment of scripture Thomas Jefferson ethics of Jesus Jewish guilt Christian libel John's gospel the un-gospel John the baptist, see John the washer John the washer Jesus' apocalyptic mentor Judaism libeled religion of Jesus kingdom of god what Jesus promised Lao Tzu poet of the cosmic way logos jesus as the word of god C. S. Lewis famous, flawed trilemma little drummer boy Luke beats Matthew logos Jesus as the divine word LORD Yahweh transitioning to the one god of all Luke's gospel the all-around best gospel Mark's gospel the gospel that lost its point Mary of Magdala women, visions, and sex massacre of the innocents bloodshed starts early Matthew's gospel best gospel for church reading Mormon, see Joseph Smith Moses Jewish lawgiver Muhammad a prophet who got it right mystery Orpheus and transubstantiation oppression origin of Jesus' compassion The Passion of the Christ Luke as buzzkill Paul revealer of the revealer private and public public Jesus and secret Christ relativism the secret power of the golden rule sacrifice Jesus' death and Christian sacrament Albert Schweitzer Jesus as a failure sheol dark pit of death show Jesus' deeds as put-ons slavery abolished by Jesus' efforts Joseph Smith flesh-and-blood Jesus Socrates secular Jesus son of god on close terms with the man upstairs soul, see body synoptics three gospels that agree temple center of Jewish religion trinity unifying and divisive doctrinre vision, see dreams Yahweh, see LORD Zoroaster Persian dualistic holy man
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