Mithra

or: Why the 'God Contract' Looked Back with Melancholy at Sunrise

The Roman cult of Mithras can be viewed as a kind of probe into the circumstances surrounding the origins of Christianity. The resemblance between the two "cults"—recognized in antiquity and confirmed by more recent findings—prompted Church Fathers to condemn the practices of the Mithraic initiates as an impudent imitation. Recent research, however, suggests the reverse order: the cult of Mithras is likely the older of the two. 
Scholarship in recent decades has focused primarily on the astrological aspects of the Mithras cult, yielding results that were spectacular yet sometimes short-lived. The present volume takes up a previously neglected psychological line of inquiry. It traces a clear path down into the "deeper" layers of the "unconscious," revealing—detail by detail—how the rich imagery of the Roman cult expresses ancient creation myths; creation here is understood as the "opening up of the world during the phases of early childhood." This approach illuminates the fact that, while the Roman cult was overlaid with astrological elements, at its core it perpetuated ancient Indo-Iranian traditions that can be traced back to the second millennium BC. Central to these traditions was the symbolic sacrifice of a son of God and his resurrection into the realm of the Father ...