The Mysteries of Mithra

Paperback, 256 pages

English language

Published March 16, 2007 by Book Tree.

ISBN:
9781585092833
OCLC Number:
173228729

View on OpenLibrary

3 stars (1 review)

Excerpt from The Mysteries of Mithra

Nevertheless, the religion of the Magi, which was the highest blossom of the genius of Iran, exercised a deep in?uence on Occidental culture at three different periods. In the first place, Parsee ism had made a very distinct impression on Judaism in its formative stage, and several of its cardinal doctrines were disseminated by Jewish colonists throughout the entire basin of the Mediterranean, and subsequently even forced themselves on ortho dox Catholicism.

6 editions

Educational

3 stars

I was intrigued by the title of this book as I had seen Mithra mentioned on a QI repeat and knew nothing about him. When The Mysteries of Mithra popped up as the free Book of the Day on ForgottenBooks.org I tapped download immediately.

The book is quite short at 239 pages and spends a fair bit of its space describing what is not known - which isn't helpful. The initial chapter examining the history of the religions from which Mithraism came is dry with lots of dates and names I'd not read before. I nearly gave up but am glad I persevered as the remaining text covering the actual beliefs, spread through the Roman Empire, practices and art, is interesting.

I had the impression that Mithraism pre-dated Christianity, but the two seem to have begun concurrently and, despite their differences, have much in common - the 25th December nativity …

Subjects

  • History of religion
  • Mind, Body, Spirit
  • Mysticism
  • History
  • Spirituality - General
  • Body, Mind & Spirit : Spirituality - General
  • Religion / History
  • Religion : Mysticism
  • Religion
  • New Age / Body, Mind & Spirit