Features
- Unknown Binding: 330 pages
- Published by: Oliver & Boyd 1967
- Written in: English
- ASIN: B0007ILKRC
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Pauline Baptism and the pagan mysteries: The problem of the Pauline Doctrine of Baptism in Romans VI.1-11, in the light of its religio-historical "parallels";
Wagner's "Pauline Baptism and the Pagan Mysteries" was one of the major books of scholarship in the last century. It was part of the debate among biblical scholars about the History of Religions theory. This was a theory, once considered very viable, that Christianity had borrowed doctrines from the pagan mysteries. Wagner's book investigates whether Paul's baptism in Rom VI drew upon mystery religions, an accusation that Bultmann and many other, earlier, scholars had made. An outstanding German scholar, Wagner painstakingly lays out every bit of evidence we have. In the end, he concludes: "the cults of Marduk, Adonis, and Attis cannot be related to Rom. VI...The same would hold good for Eleusis, had we to suppose a descent of the mystes to the Nether World. In the Egyptian Osiris cult, too, we were unable to indicate the initiation of a living man...no points of contact could possible be established with regard to the performance of the rites and their significance" (p 266-7). He draws heavily upon research by earlier scholars. All of them also found no instances of early Christianity borrowing a doctrine from on of the mystery religions. One important point: Rome had few mystery religions before the 2nd century, and it appears that some of the mystery religions that did appear in Rome later borrowed doctrines from Christianity. One clear example is the Mithric cult. Wagner concludes that "Paul modelled his 'Christ-myth' on the myths about other 'dying and rising ' gods is now now no more seriously held than in the derivation of the observance of Sunday and the resurrection on the third day from the mystery cults" (p 269). Nor does Wagner find any hint of reliance in any words chosen by Paul. Although he does use some words that were used in the mystery religions but he "uses them in a sense that does not correspond with the specific meanings accorded them in the mysteries" (p 274). In short, the differences between the mysteries and Christianity "show that there is an unbridgeable gulf between the Pauline interpretation of baptism and the piety of the mysteries" (p 285). This book has been out of print for some time. It should be reissued. Granted, the History of Religions theory is long gone, but, in spite of that, a whole new bevy of authors are churning out books that claim that Christianity borrowed from paganism. These books are written by people who have no background in biblical scholarship and it shows. Most are on the level of the aliens-built-the-pyramids popular trash, but people read the, and believe them, amazingly enough. Time to reissue some of these classic books to refute the nonsense writers.
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