Ebook: Mystery Religions in the Ancient World

A lively, illustrated overview of the variety of Mystery Religions that flourished at the dawn of the Christian Era.

In clear, enlightening text and striking images, Mystery Religions holds up a “distant mirror” to our own times, showing that the quest for spiritual illumination from Eastern religions, an emphasis on spiritual development and experience, and a concern for hidden knowledge are deeply rooted in Western culture. Mystery Religions brings the myths, the magic, the rites, and the wisdom of a bygone age to compelling life, making them comprehensible to modern readers.

Godwin begins Mystery Religions with a crucial discussion of the five basic spiritual attitudes or orientations, one (or more) of which informs the religious conceptions of all peoples of every epoch. He clarifies the various paths—that of the warrior, of the monk, of the magician, of love, and of knowledge —and applies them in a detailed examination of the major mystery religions that follows.

Here is a compelling account of the forms mystery religions took, from the cults of Mithras, Dionysus, and Orpheus to those of the Goddess, esoteric Christianity and Judaism, and Gnosticism. Godwin offers a rich and varied selection of illustrations; the symbolism of paintings, statues, reliefs, and other visual imagery provides a wealth of additional information about these religions.

As in our own day, the people of ancient Greece and Rome enjoyed unprecedented religious freedom and pursued their spiritual quest through a variety of cults, sects, rituals, and sacred studies. Mystery Religions explores this historical phenomenon from its wellsprings in the Eastern Mediterranean to its manifestations in such remote outposts of empire as the borderlands of Scotland. At the same time, Mystery Religions distills those elements of man's spiritual and intellectual growth which these religions embodied and which remain unchanged to this day. Joscelyn Godwin teaches at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. He is the author of several books on Western esoteric teaching.