Leo Caesius
Banned
Here we go again...
Mithras was not a "pagan god-man." He was most emphatically a god.
Furthermore, Christianity and Mithraism were not at all alike early on. They may have grown to be more similar over an extended period of time through contact, but even that is debatable. Beck writes,
If you're looking for good literature on Mithraism, here is a decent bibliography written by a scholar who is sympathetic to the Mithraic continuity hypothesis (despite the fact that it has fallen out of vogue in the last three decades) but nonetheless manages to keep his scruples unlike some other so-called scholars I could name.
Mithras was not a "pagan god-man." He was most emphatically a god.
Furthermore, Christianity and Mithraism were not at all alike early on. They may have grown to be more similar over an extended period of time through contact, but even that is debatable. Beck writes,
The term "Mithraism" is of course a modern coinage. In antiquity the cult was known as "the mysteries of Mithras"; alternatively, as "the mysteries of the Persians." The latter designation is significant. The Mithraists, who were manifestly not Persians in any ethnic sense, thought of themselves as cultic "Persians." Moreover, whatever moderns might think, the ancient Roman Mithraists themselves were convinced that their cult was founded by none other than Zoroaster, who "dedicated to Mithras, the creator and father of all, a cave in the mountains bordering Persia," an idyllic setting "abounding in flowers and springs of water" (Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs 6).
Persia (or Parthia) in those times was Rome's great rival and frequently at war with her. Nonetheless, there is no indication that this antagonism was ever problematic for the Mithraists socially or politically. Clearly, their cultic "Persian" identity, which they made no attempt to hide, was acceptable to the authorities and their fellow citizens.
The socio-political acceptability of the Mithraists, despite their Perserie, can be explained largely by their social profile. They were the most conformist of men — and men indeed they were in the limited gender sense of the word, a factor which itself would add to their respectability or at least not detract from it (compare the charge against Christianity that it subverted the family by proselytizing the womenfolk). Mithraism drew its initiates disproportionately from the military, from the Empire's petty bureaucracy, and from moderately successful freedmen (i.e. ex-slaves), in fact from the retainer classes, the very people who had a stake in the current sociopolitical dispensation. (On Mithraism's social profile see Clauss 1992, Gordon 1972, Liebeschuetz 1994; Merkelbach 1984: pp. 153-88)
[...]
The scattering of mithraea, thus identified across the Roman Empire, is perhaps more informative about the cult's spread and social composition than are the material remains of any of its peers, early Christianity included. We have already looked at Mithraism's social catchment. As for its spread, though represented virtually everywhere in the Roman empire, it was much stronger in the Latin speaking West than in the (predominantly) Greek-speaking East. It flourished in particular in the city of Rome and its port, Ostia, and along the Rhine-Danube frontier — exactly where one would expect from its social profile. (For maps, see Clauss 1992, province by province).
[...]
In Syria it is the absence of data on any intermediary form of Mithraism that is remarkable (a Chestertonian "dog which did not bark"). With the single exception of the recently discovered Huwarti mithraeum, the few actual mithraea and the monuments lacking known provenance which have been recovered there exemplify either the norms of western Mithraism or minor variations on those norms. The Huwarti mithraeum, moreover, dates to the final decades of the fourth century CE. Accordingly, it speaks of the local redefinition of a religion in its final years, not of "a road not taken" in its formative years. Mithraism in Syria was not a transitional phase intermediate between East and West, but a back-formation from the West in the East.
In short, originally Mithraism was popular in all the areas where Christianity was not, socially acceptable where Christianity was not, aimed explicitly at men where Christianity was not, and so on. There really is very little in common between the two.Persia (or Parthia) in those times was Rome's great rival and frequently at war with her. Nonetheless, there is no indication that this antagonism was ever problematic for the Mithraists socially or politically. Clearly, their cultic "Persian" identity, which they made no attempt to hide, was acceptable to the authorities and their fellow citizens.
The socio-political acceptability of the Mithraists, despite their Perserie, can be explained largely by their social profile. They were the most conformist of men — and men indeed they were in the limited gender sense of the word, a factor which itself would add to their respectability or at least not detract from it (compare the charge against Christianity that it subverted the family by proselytizing the womenfolk). Mithraism drew its initiates disproportionately from the military, from the Empire's petty bureaucracy, and from moderately successful freedmen (i.e. ex-slaves), in fact from the retainer classes, the very people who had a stake in the current sociopolitical dispensation. (On Mithraism's social profile see Clauss 1992, Gordon 1972, Liebeschuetz 1994; Merkelbach 1984: pp. 153-88)
[...]
The scattering of mithraea, thus identified across the Roman Empire, is perhaps more informative about the cult's spread and social composition than are the material remains of any of its peers, early Christianity included. We have already looked at Mithraism's social catchment. As for its spread, though represented virtually everywhere in the Roman empire, it was much stronger in the Latin speaking West than in the (predominantly) Greek-speaking East. It flourished in particular in the city of Rome and its port, Ostia, and along the Rhine-Danube frontier — exactly where one would expect from its social profile. (For maps, see Clauss 1992, province by province).
[...]
In Syria it is the absence of data on any intermediary form of Mithraism that is remarkable (a Chestertonian "dog which did not bark"). With the single exception of the recently discovered Huwarti mithraeum, the few actual mithraea and the monuments lacking known provenance which have been recovered there exemplify either the norms of western Mithraism or minor variations on those norms. The Huwarti mithraeum, moreover, dates to the final decades of the fourth century CE. Accordingly, it speaks of the local redefinition of a religion in its final years, not of "a road not taken" in its formative years. Mithraism in Syria was not a transitional phase intermediate between East and West, but a back-formation from the West in the East.
If you're looking for good literature on Mithraism, here is a decent bibliography written by a scholar who is sympathetic to the Mithraic continuity hypothesis (despite the fact that it has fallen out of vogue in the last three decades) but nonetheless manages to keep his scruples unlike some other so-called scholars I could name.