Is Our Christianity Pagan?
Riggs, T. Lawrason
64 THE COMMONWEAL May 22, 1929 IS OUR CHRISTIANITY PAGAN? By T. LAWRASON RIGGS AN AUTHOR of widely popular books on Egyptian history, Mr. Arthur Weigall, has turned his attention...
...So much for theories fashionable not long ago, which held that Christ's teaching was entirely concerned with the next life I Thus do the radical critics fluctuate in their emphasis on one or another aspect of Our Lord's teaching, while ignoring others that conflict with their favorite thesis...
...Weigall) is in reality a syncretism or amalgam of pagan mystery cults constitutes the book's raison d'etre...
...Since, however, his guns are chiefly leveled at such basic doctrines as the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Atonement, it is against Catholicism also that he fights...
...But though the reader can scarcely ask for absence of bias, he has a right to expect the objective presentation of evidence, some sense of proportion, and some common sense...
...As a contribution to the history of religion its value is nil...
...and it is to be noticed that in almost every case there is clear evidence that the god sacrificed himself to himself...
...It should be noted that Caiaphas obviously refers to the danger of the Romans suppressing a Messianic uprising and that the quoting of the remark, reported only by Saint John, shows how historic the Fourth Gospel can be when the mythists want to use it...
...But unprejudiced investigation shows that the likeness to Christian doctrines and sacraments, noted by the early Fathers and ascribed to the devil, is extremely slight, and can be better explained by universal religious tendencies than by borrowing...
...It demands, therefore, more than passing notice...
...Most writers of the school attach the chief blame to Saint Paul for the alleged paganizing of Christianity...
...and the Christian tradition is too potent a force to be dealt with in a frame of mind indifferent to the truth of its claims...
...Another fault of method is the constant exaggeration of resemblances between the mystery cults and Christianity...
...Now Miriam is the same common Hebrew name, of course...
...Weigall regards the release of Barabbas as real, but as showing that the Crucifixion "was a human sacrifice...
...Another strange idea of the mythists, to which Mr...
...To maintain, however, that her doctrine and sacraments were fundamentally pagan in inspiration can only be done by far-fetched comparison, by much use of question-begging terms, by assuming that any resemblance means borrowing, and by ignoring chronological probability...
...The Anglican Church is thus the immediate object of Mr...
...The syncretists are therefore guilty of anachronism when they use data from a period when these religions were conscious rivals of Christianity...
...Yet this ideal is remote from Mr...
...In a sense, of course, no writer on the subject can be free from bias...
...The English Prayer Book crisis has, he informs us, spurred him to action...
...Adonis, son of Myrrha...
...Be it noted that Cumont, an eminent authority on the mystery cults in general, and unquestionably supreme in his knowledge of Mithraism in particular, warns against the danger of assuming borrowings by Christianity, and considers the pagan influence to have been virtually nil...
...Joshua, according to the Chronicle of Tabari, the son of Miriam...
...Weigall, however, follows those extremists who see the pagan taint even in the Synoptics...
...Weigall's liking, and is therefore rejected, though certain very wild ideas of the mythists are spoken of with respect...
...But these phrases turn out to be empty when we read later that He was "simply a man," and that He was the son of a carpenter, who went about the country preaching and healing the sick [by faith-healing of course!] who was ultimately regarded by a small group of disciples as the Messiah or Christ, and after being taken down from the cross as dead, was seen alive by many persons...
...Arthur Weigall, has turned his attention to Christian origins with a selfconfidence only equaled by his prejudice...
...The book's main thesis, that Christianity was transformed by pagan influences, and especially by the mystery cults, has brought forth an enormous mass of literature...
...It is by no means a new theory...
...and that even the Pope's tiara is not without the same stigma...
...that Saint Paul's exhortation to "put on the armor of light" is probably a Mithraic reference...
...Much of the evidence is from an equally late period, and indeed it was not until then that the oriental mysteries had spread widely...
...In some places, for instance in the Babylonian festival called the "Sacaea," criminals were treated as mock kings before execution, a procedure supposed to have its origin in primitive human sacrifices...
...Hermes, the Greek Logos, son of Maia...
...Weigall makes so much, some liturgical phrases and ritual details, occasional saints' legends, scattered folk-customs, tolerated or reinterpreted by the Church葉hese inessentials were probably influenced here and there by paganism, for the Church very wisely did not destroy where she could reconsecrate usages of long standing...
...Weigall devotes a whole chapter, is their interpretation of the release of Barabbas...
...I propose, therefore, to say something of Mr...
...It is while professing to be a follower of Christ that he states his views of what sort of man Christ really was and what He taught...
...Now Adonis, Osiris and Dionysus are slain by malice or accident...
...Weigall's attack...
...At a later time there were no doubt unimportant borrowings from paganism...
...The totally unnecessary reference to pagan sources can only be supported by the distortion of one kind of evidence and the ignoring of another...
...Christ] knew no theology, beyond the fact that God is love and that the kingdom of God in the hearts of men can and will be established on this earth by obedience to the rules He gave us by precept and example...
...He confesses to a "certain prejudice" in favor of Anglicanism, being, as he admits with pardonable pride, "the stepson, the grandson, the nephew, and the cousin many times over of English clergymen...
...If he does not more often mention the Catholic Church, it seems to be because he considers her both incorrigible and negligible...
...Friends and foes of the Christian tradition should alike refrain from rash generalizations and deal fairly and squarely with any relevant facts...
...From the fact that the mysteries were secret, we know of them chiefly through fragmentary references and rei/ains, many of the former being remarks by hostile Christian writers...
...Barabbas is dragged into the picture by Frazer and Reinach as (in Weigall's words) "the traditional name for the victim in an annual human sacrifice," because his name means "son of the father" (it may also mean "son of a rabbi," and was in any case extremely common) and because an idiot named Karabas was treated as a mock king and afterward released by the Alexandrians in 38 A. D., in order to show their scorn for Herod Agrippa I. Hence, says Reinach, "Jesus was put to death, not instead of Barabas" (Reinach misspells the name) "but as Barabas...
...An entirely mythical Gospel, a la Drews and Brandes, is not to Mr...
...and if "Myrrha" and "Maya" and "Maritala" are variants of it, the derivation of "Middletown" from "Moses" is a plausible linguistic conclusion...
...There is no evidence that such a custom existed in Palestine at the time of Our Lord's Passion 容xcept a far-fetched interpretation of Caiaphas's remark about one man dying溶ot "being sacrificed" 様est the whole people perish...
...Such twaddle irresistibly reminds one of a passage in another more realistic book: "They were learning to draw," the Dormouse went on, "and they drew all manner of things容verything that begins with an M...
...These facts, and the Old Testament religion, whose hopes Christianity fulfilled, are sufficient to account for it...
...In either case the foundation of the whole elaborate theory about a "Barabbas sacrifice" is equally flimsy...
...Moses, the son of Miriam...
...Similar cults had long existed in Greece, notably at Eleusis, but those that won more than local popularity in the Roman empire, including the mysteries of Mithra, Isis and Cybele, were chiefly oriental in origin...
...As the complement of such strained comparisons the syncretists are forced to ignore basic differences between Christianity and the pagan cults...
...An outstanding feature of late Roman paganism was the widespread popularity of those cults which, in 66 THE COMMONWEAL May 22, 1929 contradistinction to the perfunctory ceremonial of the state religion, promised to their votaries direct relations with divine powers, and often personal immortality, to be obtained by initiatory rites whose secrecy was jealously guarded, but which we know to have involved symbolic dramas descriptive of various myths...
...Those methods pervade the present book, described by its publishers as "disturbing...
...It proceeds, in questions of authenticity and date, by the simple method of ignoring all but the most radical opinions...
...Many of these allegations are patently worthless, and it is in any case impossible to deal with all of them without publishing an annotated edition of the book...
...The facts concerning it must matter to any man in his senses more than those concerning Tut-ankh-Amen or Cleopatra...
...Why with an M?" said Alice...
...Weigall's mind...
...It was obviously written in haste...
...The pagan cults dealt with vague and floating mythological figures...
...It is true, however, and it is a tribute to rather than an indictment of Christianity, that, as Grandmaison says, "the Christian mystery satisfied, with its moving story, its sacramental system, and its assurance of eternal life, the immense hope which raised men's minds at that period...
...Actual errors are not infrequent...
...Weigall's treatment of the New Testament...
...However, similar customs did exist among the Roman soldiery at the Saturnalia and possibly influenced their mockery of Our Lord, though the suggestion seems altogether superfluous...
...The results leave the documents just where the author wants them...
...The moral is that the Gospels are inextricably intertwined with legend...
...One wonders what the survivors of this clerical galaxy think of their relative's way of repaying his debt to their church, as one reads that resistance to Romanizing tendencies is a small matter compared to the necessity of a far more extensive housecleaning...
...As the traditional religion lost its vitality the personal, emotional appeal of the mysteries met with widespread success, culminating in their adoption by t'\e emperors themselves...
...Weigall harps on the theme: Ancient mythology is full of stories of incarnate gods who suffered on behalf of mankind, who died, were buried, descended into hell, and rose again from the dead, and through whose redeeming blood the faithful were saved...
...Weigall's statements are, in short, veritable triumphs of question-begging and unjustified generalizing...
...Cyrus, the son of Mariana or Mandane...
...there is no resurrection, beyond an apotheosis, or vague ideas connected with the annual revival of vegetation...
...Thus, the AssumpMay 22, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 65 tion of the Blessed Virgin is not celebrated on August 13, and "God of Gods" is a mistranslation of "Theon ek Theou" in the Nicene Creed...
...Evidence" which is no evidence at all abounds, attaining incredible climaxes of absurdity in the chapter on Mithra, wherein we are told that the importance of the words "Upon this rock I will build my church," was due to their approximation to the Mithraic idea of the "Theos ek Petras," the "god from the rock...
...It should not be in the least disturbing to any well-informed Christian, but the fact that such a book can be regarded as significant is disturbing indeed...
...Thus Harnack, whose "reaction" in these matters is highly important, is mentioned only once...
...Weigall loses no time in telling why he is so anxious to offer his conclusions at present...
...They can thenceforth be treated as mythical or legendary whenever they interfere with his views, but as reliable for the reconstruction of the merely human and mundane Christ whom Mr...
...The dates of certain festivals, of which Mr...
...The facts utilized are, briefly, as follows...
...The thesis that Christianity (I shall continue to call it that in spite of Mr...
...It might well begin, one infers, with meditations on The Golden Bough...
...Indeed, the question of historicity in regard to such personages and their adventures, as Grandmaison says, "ne se pose meme pas"謡as not even raised容xcept by a few "euhemeristic" philosophers bent on finding historic bases for all myths...
...The latter's moral element was usually non-existent, while Christian teachings and sacraments were essentially related to morality...
...said the March Hare...
...Among the rare accounts of more detailed character is that of the mysteries of Isis, by Apuleius, in the second century after Christ...
...Such a theory is superfluous, in view of the historical records of its Founder's teachings...
...Thus, the Citizen Dupuis, in 1794, described Christianity as a sect of Mithraism...
...The book's discussion of the complex problems involved in New Testament criticism is summary in the extreme...
...There is no connection between their sufferings, where such were supposed to have taken place, and the sins of man...
...In recent years the theory has been elaborated by Reitzenstein and Loisy, and is constantly implied in the erudite though biased researches of Frazer...
...Perhaps their most obviously strained comparison is that between the sufferings of various gods, or demi-gods, and the Passion of Christ...
...Weigall would of course emphatically deny being hostile to Christianity...
...one can only guess at the meaning of the remark that "all our ancestors back to the days of Our Lord could be comfortably carried on one ordinary London omnibus...
...Attis mutilates himself because of Cybele's revengeful jealousy...
...Everything else that He is supposed to have taught and done consists in reality of misinterpretations and accretions...
...He does not present a single new fact or draw a single significant conclusion...
...A thorough de-paganizing of theology is necessary if such implacably modern brains as Mr...
...Cumont says that we know about as much of Mithraism as we would of mediaeval Christianity if we had only the Old Testament and some sculptured fragments...
...Buddha, the son of Maya...
...Miracles, dogmas, sacraments, cannot win "the approval of twentieth-century brains," and must forthwith be jettisoned...
...We are solemnly told: One begins to think that the name of Our Lord's mother may have been forgotten and a stock name substituted . . . because so many gods and semi-divine heroes have mothers whose names are variations of "Mary...
...To argument by such methods the syncretists have devoted an industry and learning worthy of a better cause...
...I have dealt with it in some detail to show how a perfectly credible incident, reported by all four Evangelists, can be treated by those who have taken leave of common sense under the influence of an obsession...
...The residue will be pure Christianity, since the aforesaid elements are really relics of paganism...
...there is no "redeeming blood" shed by them...
...Christianity, on the other hand, was based on a perfectly historical Man, Who lived in a definite place at a definite time, and concerning Whom the facts were reported in trustworthy documents, after being witnessed by those who first spread the Faith...
...Not that Christianity sprang in its essentials from these tendencies...
...Practically the whole of His teaching was concerned with conditions in this life...
...The former dealt, indeed, with personal immortality, and contained such features as sacrifices, lustral rites and ritual meals regarded as means of communion with divinity...
...Weigall's are to be won back...
...Adonis, Attis, Dionysus, Herakles, Mithra, Osiris and other deities were all saviour-gods whose deaths were regarded as sacrifices made on behalf of mankind...
...Why not...
...Krishna, the son of Maritala...
...Weigall is willing to endorse...
...Yet the book is likely to be widely read, and has already been reviewed with solemn approval...
...One wonders only why nobody has thought of citing Puss-inBoots's master, the Marquis of Carabas, as additional evidence...
...Evidence of a willing self-sacrifice by any of these mythological figures, far from being "clear," is very scanty and flimsy...
...One does not write such a book as his recent The Paganism in Our Christianity unless one has a thesis...
...Mithra slays a bull from whose blood all creatures spring, but does not die himself ; and so forth...
...Our Lord is spoken of early in the book as "the Eternal One," and as "Lord also of the twentieth century...
...His volume is a popular rehash of data and inferences culled from the works of Frazer, Loisy, Reinach, Robertson and other radical theorizers, whose views, though often refuted, are still fashionable in certain circles...
...It is thoroughly characteristic of mythist mentality...
...A remarkably large though motley collection of citations and arguments to this effect is crammed into less than three hundred pages...
...and so on...
Vol. 10 • May 1929 • No. 3
