Augustus tried to destroy the imported cults and mysteries that had conquered the Roman state. [1] Christianity provided comfort and liberation in Rome, amid the struggle between Stoicism and the mystery cults. [2] Mystery cults influenced Christianity through the Roman version of the miraculous birth of Mithras. [3] Mithras replaced Phrygian and Egyptian mysteries as the greatest of all mystery cults, spreading throughout the Roman Empire. [4] The most popular mystery cults were Cybele and Attis, Osiris and Isis, and Mithras. [5] The mystery cults were personal, fraternal, and united diverse individuals across cultures and nations. [6]
The mystery cults offered hopes of personal salvation and provided diversion and excitement, satisfying the spiritual hunger of the people but ultimately failing to satisfy their longing for true righteousness and redemption. [7]
The mystery cults from Egypt and the Levant provided promises of salvation and hope for immortality to the majority in the Greco-Roman world who had lost their traditional religions and were unable to understand Greek philosophy. [8]
The Orphic brotherhood stood out as the best among the mystery cults, offering moral guidance and promises of salvation that resonated with many, despite the ignorance and disinterest of the average men of that time in Greek philosophy and abstract deities. [9] The mystery cults were centered around a god's life, death, and rebirth, as seen in Mithraism and Christianity. [10]
The mystery cults plunged Greece into intellectual stagnation, moral depravity, and spiritual poverty, pushing aside the Greek philosophy of self-realization and abstract Deity in favor of promises of salvation from a personal God. [11] Mystery cults paved the way for Jesus and Christianity, offering individual salvation and preparing the spiritually hungry for superior teachings. [12] Some mystery cults had gruesome secret rites and revolting rituals. [13]