A mystery religion is a religious organization or cult which is focused mainly
on a single deity. This deity usually has something which it can offer to
the individual member of the society. the distinguishing characteristics of
a mystery religion are the focus on the individual, a sense of community
and generally a salvation theme.
Mystery Religions in the Roman Empire
The focus of this web page is the importance of these mystery religions in
the Roman Empire. Beginning in the Republic,
these religions became increasingly
popular in the early Empire and eventually one of them,
Christianity, became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
During the early Empire, the cults of Mithras and
Isis were also very popular, though were later
driven nearly to extinction by Christianity. Many social, political,
philosophical, and historical reasons have been proposed for the shift away
from the state religions to the mystery cults. The reason that I find to be
the most plausible is that the Empire simply grew too big for its citizens.
As the Empire grew rapidly in the late first century BC and the first century
AD, it was easy for individuals to lose their nationalistic feelings just
because of the sheer size of their country. This of course led to a shift
towards a more individualistic approach to life and with this came a shift
away from the nationalistic state cult towards a more individual-oriented
religious system. This is an atrocious oversimplification of several hundred
years of social history, but it serves well for background.
My information for this page came from many places, the most important of
those being Dr. Walt Stevenson'sRoman History class, and various places on the web,
which can all be found on the Links Page.
Mithraism
