The Roman Mithras Cult: A Cognitive Approach (Scientific Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation) - Softcover

Panagiotidou, Olympia; Beck, Roger

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1472567390 ISBN 13: 9781472567390

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019

Synopsis

This book is the first full cognitive history of an ancient religious practice. In this ground-breaking study on one of the most intriguing and mysterious cults, Olympia Panagiotidou, with contributions from Roger Beck, shows how cognitive historiography can supplement our historical knowledge and deepen our understanding of past cultural phenomena.

The cult of the sun god Mithras, which spread widely across the Graeco-Roman world at the same time as other 'mystery cults', offered its devotees certain images and assumptions about reality. Initiation into the mysteries of Mithras and participation in the life of the cult significantly affected and transformed the ways in which the initiated perceived themselves, the world, and their position within it. The cult's major ideas were conveyed mainly through its symbolic complexes. The ancient written testimonies and other records are not adequate to establish a definitive reconstruction of Mithraic theologies and the meaning of its complex symbolic structures.

The Roman Mithras Cult identifies the cognitive and psychological processes which would have taken place in the minds and bodies of the Mithraists during their initiation and participation in the mysteries, enabling the perception, apprehension, and integration of the essential images and assumptions of the cult in its worldview system.

About this title

About the Authors

Olympia Panagiotidou is a researcher at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Roger Beck is Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada.

Donald Wiebe is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada.

Luther H. Martin is Professor of Religion Emeritus at the University of Vermont, USA.

Radek Kundt is Assistant Professor in the Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University, Czech Republic. He is also a Research Fellow at the LEVYNA Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion, Masaryk University, Czech Republic.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1472567390
• ISBN 13: 9781472567390
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240