Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras Hardcover - 2008
by Jaime Alvar
From the rear cover
The traditional grand narrative correlating the decline of Graeco-Roman religion with the rise of Christianity has been under pressure for three decades. This book argues that the alternative accounts now emerging significantly underestimate the role of three major cults, of Cybele and Attis, Isis and Serapis, and Mithras. Although their differences are plain, these cults present sufficient common features to justify their being taken typologically as a group. All were selective adaptations of much older cults of the Fertile Crescent. It was their relative sophistication, their combination of the imaginative power of unfamiliar myth with distinctive ritual performance and ethical seriousness, that enabled them both to focus and to articulate a sense of the autonomy of religion from the socio-political order, a sense they shared with Early Christianity. The notion of 'mystery' was central to their ability to navigate the Weberian shift from ritualist to ethical salvation.
Details
- Title Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras
- Author Jaime Alvar
- Binding Hardcover
- Pages 508
- Volumes 1
- Language GRC
- Publisher Brill
- Date 2008-11
- Illustrated Yes
- ISBN 9789004132931 / 9004132937
- Weight 2.15 lbs (0.98 kg)
- Dimensions 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.2 in (24.38 x 16.51 x 3.05 cm)
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 2008015353
- Dewey Decimal Code 200.937
Media reviews
Citations
- Reference and Research Bk News, 02/01/2009, Page 18