Una lettura precisa di tutti quegli altri culti misterici che aprirono la strada al cristianesimo

Informative, but rather dull, I'm afraid. The section on astrology was one of the highlights, given all of Cumont's prejudices (mostly those of his time).

A fascinating subject; occasionally Franz Cumont makes the subject come to life every now and then but for the most part, he retreats back into the hard work of making his case for the influence of various polytheistic near-eastern (sic, Oriental) religions on Roman paganism. He clearly conveys the

Enkele ideeën zijn intussen gedateerd, maar desalniettemin enorm interessant!

I read this book as part of a course on "Science, Christianity, and the Western Intellectual Tradition" - a nice focused course! The punch line of the book is that the early Christians were good marketers, in that they hijacked the established pagan holidays (generally around the dates of the winter

Franz Cumont's books represent accessible introductions to religious syncretism in the classical world, how the traditional beliefs of individual peoples combined upon the rise of larger political entities and how religion moved from being particularistic to becoming universalistic. 'Oriental Religi

So, did God create man or vice-versa? Though sometimes difficult due to terminology, the book provided many "Aha" moments in detailing the age-old origins of numerous religious concepts and practices still followed today, leading to a rational inference many adherents would find uncomfortable.

We all learned in school or Sunday school the official story of the rise of Christianity: there were two very different religions, paganism, based on the classical Greek and Roman myths familiar from Ovid and Bullfinch, polytheistic and amoral, and Christianity, monotheistic and moral. By some unkno