@Village Idiot “cults like Christianity do not invent leaders;
their members won’t have the imagination to do so.”
I quite
agree with the second half of your sentence, they had no need for imagination
when there was a ready-made and universal myth of a holy superman which could
be elaborated upon.
Was it
necessary to have a charismatic leader to jump start Christianity?
There are two strong arguments against this.
Firstly as already stressed the virtually complete story of christ the superman,
demi-god born of a virgin in a cave in midwinter with oxen, visited by three Persian
astrologers, healed the sick raised Lazarus ,walked on water, turned water into
wine and died at Easter on a cross etc .
This tale was told from antiquity. Again, Christianity with a capital C began
in the fourth century with the Roman Church. It became ‘Catholic’ or universal
by the deliberate absorption of all significant religious beliefs syncretising
them into the Christianity we recognise today.
The
idea of Christ already existed in people’s minds so a man of flesh was not
necessary and it was the Roman Church and Emperor Constantine, not any charismatic
Jew which jump started the religion. In fact there is no extant written
evidence that ”Jesus” was used in the first century. The most widely
distributed Christian literature of the first two centuries, The Shepherd of
Hermas, called the saviour hero ”Lord”.
As
regards myth it is worth appreciating that the obvious does not apply here. The obvious assumption is that a historical person or event, a kernel of truth is
elaborated and ‘mythologized’ over time. Whereas this is completely possible;
this is not mythology, it is not the pattern of transmitting myth. For what it
is worth; the opposite is true.
I would
maintain that much of the Bible texts are built around myth and not history. It
is critical in understanding that what has occurred is that writers have historicised the myths and not mythologized
history. In other words they have clothed the myth to give it a recognisable personality or plausible historical setting. As with the question of who is the real James Bond; the character
(the myth) is fiction but comes to life by elaboration of his exploits and by
the actors who play him. Once this perception
has been fully grasped it makes for real progress in understanding what the
Bible is all about. (IMHO)
@ finklestein
"And wasn't the reason why the Romans eventually adopted Christianity was because it was deemed better than their old previous pagan practices ?"
I would say that they adopted Christianity because IT WAS ALREADY their pagan practice!
Consider...
1) Hundreds of years before Jesus, according to the Mithraic religion, three Wise Men of Persia came to visit the baby savior-god Mithra, bring him gifts of gold, myrrh and frankincense.
2) Mithra was born on December 25 as told in the “Great Religions of the World”, page 330; “…it was the winter solstice celebrated by ancients as the birthday of Mithraism’s sun god”.
3) According to Mithraism, before Mithra died on a cross, he celebrated a “Last Supper with his twelve disciples, who represented the twelve signs of the zodiac.
4) After the death of Mithra, his body was laid to rest in a rock tomb.
5) Mithra had a celibate priesthood.
6) Mithra ascended into heaven during the spring (Passover) equinox (the time when the sun crosses the equator making night and day of equal length).
