Mary is quite a bit more. She is part of the royal link back to David. She is also part of the Biblical eugenics project which preserved the bloodlines that fulfilled prophesies going back the Garden.
A prime example of how original meanings get complicated and corrupted. Then historians take promence thinking that the things that happened are all there is.
I have seem numerous examples of constructive mystic practices reduced to fuzzy feel-goodism without any understanding of the unseen meaning of the practices. This is followed closely by those who just picked up the practice last week and profess miraculous changes in their outward life and...
The sense of mystery religion I intended was more of we don't know much about it rather than a belief in mysteries.
I picked up a hint from the previous thread that Paul my have instituted sacraments due to some percieved influence of Mithraism.
Yes. In view of deeper understanding of multmulti-dimensional universes and Hawking's single wave concept of the universe, I think they might consider it more seriously.
There seemed to be some mention of communion and the Catholic practice of transsubstantiation (sp?). The thread got garbled with pissing contests and ambiguity at that point.
This relationship came up in another thread. I'm ignorant of this concern. No one cared to explain much with clarity. Maybe I can get some this way.
What is the relationship between the theology of Paul and this little known mystery religion?