Religion

My investigations over the years into religion and philosophy as it pertains to modern life. The first few entries are taken from a course given by Prof. Nicholson that I took at univeristy entitled, "The Pagan Background of Christianity". A fascinating course that explored the many ancient customs that came to be integrated into the Christian religion.

Some of the pertinent text used in the course and related to the background of Christianity:
The Ancient Mysteries - A Sourcebook. M.W.Meyer, ed. This is the book to start with.
Pagan and Christian in the Age of Anxiety. E.R. Dodds
The Golden Ass. Apuleius
Three Greek Romances. M. Hadas
The New Testament
Phaedo (esp. 69c-e). Plato

Other Readings:
The Role of Religion in History, George Walsh
The Anxious Pagan. B.P. Reardon
Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism. F. Cumont
Early Christianity. R.H. Bainton
Early Christian Fathers. H. Bettenson
Pagans and Christians. R. Lane Fox
Greek and Roman Philosophy after Aristotle. J. Saunders

For a more thorough list of texts see my Bibliography page.


Groucho Marx - "I was in Montreal and a priest came up to me, puts out his hand and says 'I wanna thank you for all the joy you've put into this world.' And I shook his hand, and I said 'And I wanna thank you, for all the joy you've taken out of this world.' "

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Song To Mithras

Image
by Rudyard Kipling (Hymn of the 30th Legion: circa A.D. 350) Mithras, God of the Morning, our trumpets waken the Wall! 'Rome is above the Nations, but Thou art over all!' Now as the names are answered, and the guards are marched away, Mithras, also a soldier, give us strength for the day! Mithras, God of the Noontide, the heather swims in the heat. Our helmets scorch our foreheads, our sandals burn our feet. Now in the ungirt hour — now ere we blink and drowse, Mithras, also a soldier, keep us true to our vows! Mithras, God of the Sunset, low on the Western main — Thou descending immortal, immortal to rise again! Now when the watch is ended, now when the wine is drawn! Mithras, also a soldier, keep us pure till the dawn! Mithras, God of the Midnight, here where the great bull dies, Look on thy children in darkness. Oh take our sacrifice! Many roads thou hast fashioned — all of them lead to the Light: Mithras, also a soldier, teach us to die aright! Mithras ...
Read more

The Twelve Olympian Gods

οί δώδεκα θεοί Dr. M. Nicholson, Queen's University The canonical 12 Olympian gods are: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes, Athena, Hephaistos, Hestia. Several later variations include the following: on the east frieze of the Parthenon (5th century B.C.) Hestia was displaced by Dionysos; in Plato's writings, Pluto (also known as Hades, the god of death) displaced Hestia as one of the canonical Twelve. However, Hades, although a brother of Zeus, did not live on Olympus, but in the underworld along with Persephone and Hecate, and so did not really belong with the inhabitants of Olympus. In the agora of Athens there was an altar to the Twelve; it was a sanctuary for suppliants and distances were measured from it. ZEUS: (Roman Juppiter [2 p's is the older spelling], Sanskrit Dyauspitar, Germanic Tiw or Ziu) The bright, shining one. He lives in the sky, he is the sky. Father of gods and men, he rules among all the immortals. He...
Read more

The Anchor Symbol

Image
The anchor as a symbol of Christianity has a previous history. The anchor was prominent in Rome as a symbol of Apollo, as James Valiant notes in his book, Creating Christ: How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity (co-authored with C.W. Fahy). The symbol is seen today often with a cross and Christ superimposed on it. And here we can see the symbol on the wall of a building in Pompeii, as a symbol of Apollo. The dolphins seen here were also symbols of Apollo. (This image appears on the cover of the Valiant/Lahy book.)
Read more