ROGER BECK
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199216130
- eISBN:
- 9780191712128
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216130.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
This concluding chapter revisits the summary description of the religion of the Mithras cult proposed in Chapter 1.
This concluding chapter revisits the summary description of the religion of the Mithras cult proposed in Chapter 1.
ROGER BECK
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199216130
- eISBN:
- 9780191712128
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216130.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
This introductory chapter provides an introduction to interpreting Mithraism as a mystery cult. The sense in which ‘religion’ is used is defined. Old methods are contrasted with a new method that ...
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This introductory chapter provides an introduction to interpreting Mithraism as a mystery cult. The sense in which ‘religion’ is used is defined. Old methods are contrasted with a new method that focuses on cognition, on how the initiate gets to know his religion through apprehending ‘images, suppositions, and representations’. A summary description of the cult's religion is given in terms of ‘axioms’, instantiated in ‘motifs’ (e.g. descent and ascent), operating in ‘domains’ (e.g. the sublunary world), on ‘structured sites’ (e.g. the mithraeum), in ‘symbolic modes’ (e.g. ritual action), by means of a ‘symbolic idiom’ (i.e. ‘star-talk’). The axioms postulated for Mithraism are (1) deus sol invictus Mithras (the cult title of the god), and (2) ‘harmony of tension in opposition’.Less
This introductory chapter provides an introduction to interpreting Mithraism as a mystery cult. The sense in which ‘religion’ is used is defined. Old methods are contrasted with a new method that focuses on cognition, on how the initiate gets to know his religion through apprehending ‘images, suppositions, and representations’. A summary description of the cult's religion is given in terms of ‘axioms’, instantiated in ‘motifs’ (e.g. descent and ascent), operating in ‘domains’ (e.g. the sublunary world), on ‘structured sites’ (e.g. the mithraeum), in ‘symbolic modes’ (e.g. ritual action), by means of a ‘symbolic idiom’ (i.e. ‘star-talk’). The axioms postulated for Mithraism are (1) deus sol invictus Mithras (the cult title of the god), and (2) ‘harmony of tension in opposition’.
