Customer Reviews

Mithras: Mysteries and Inititation Rediscovered

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Cooper's annotated bibliography identifies 29 works, and he indicates the way in which each assists readers in rediscovering the nature of early Christianity's most powerful rival religion. Episcopal priest Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie (1871-1940) asserted Mithrasism contributed more than Judaism to the story of Jesus--whose birth was fixed on the same date as that of Mithras, his predecessor. Guthrie is cited in this text (p. 160) for his contention that the classical world was not interested in codifying dogmatic unity into its systematic theologies. Cooper suggests early Mithrasism and Christianity were not monoliths of homogeneity, but just as diverse in their beliefs and practices as religions today.

This was an interesting book from the standpoint of Cooper tends to propose theories based on his experience as an occultist rather than from a scholars approach. This is a fresh approach and I believe offers some insight into the nature of the religion. However, Cooper was quick to attack modern scholarship on several points and then turns around a builds theories of Mithras worship based on his own subjective views of occultism. I think it would've been more prudent of Cooper to compare the mystery religions of the day to Mithras rather than modern occult groups like the Golden Dawn and Free Masons - something that he critisizes scholars of doing with Mithras and Christianity. Over-all the book is a good introduction to Mithras - for occultists.

The reason I mention the Golden Dawn and the Freemasons (and the Knights Templar and Christianity) is given on page 28: "What we can do is look at other groups with similar interests to the Mithrasians and look for possible parallels. The means of organizing human affairs may be many, but they are not infinite. If we can find the parallels we may understand more about the nature of the Mithrasian religion." Hardly any mystery. And why the fact I emigrated to Australia and have a BA in politics should be relevant(both facts which have appeared in writing, so it's not releasing anything new to public gaze)is beyond me. Is there some guilt attached to moving to Australia?