“Christ is the reason for the Season” has made its debut, this being the season for the brief yearly appearance of this piece of ‘everybody knows’ …….untruth.
If one feels the need to have a god as the reason for the period of celebration surrounding the winter solstice and new year, then proper attribution would be to Mithras.
Mithras was a Persian god from the Zoroastrian pantheon, where he was a helper and assistant to the power of Good against the power of Evil. In the fight against Evil, Mithras slew a bull created by the Evil Lord and it was from the blood of this bull that all life sprang all.
Over time the cult of Mithras [Mithraism] gradually detached itself from Zoroastrianism and developed a mythology and rituals of its own.
Originally Mithras was subordinate to the Lord of Good [the Sun-god], but with the passage of time he came to be regarded as a peer to the Sun, and finally identified with Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun.
The cult of Mithras came to Rome in the first century BCE, and quickly gained a steady following and was widespread throughout the Roman Empire in the first century CE. Mithraism peaked in the third century CE, before being suppressed with all other non-Christian cults at the end of 4th century; a suppression that resulted from the triumphant rise of the Christian cult and its graduation from ‘cult to ‘religion’.
Faced with the threat posed by the advantage Mithraism enjoyed in the hearts and minds of the populace as a result of Mithraism’s solstice/year end/new year celebrations, the Christian cults found themselves in need of a yearend celebration.
An astute marketing decision and….the birth of Jesus was celebrated on December 25th, which strategically fell between the winter solstice and the yearend/new year.
There are those who have searched the Bible to find passages that they could interpret and use as evidence that the Bible proves Christ was born December 25th.
The problem is that the Christian gospels were clearly written as theological documents in the context of early Christianity rather than historical chronicles and their authors showed little interest in an absolute chronology of Jesus or in synchronizing the episodes of his life with the secular history of the age.
The only thing that these arguments have proven is that one can use and interpret the words of the Bible to ‘prove’ anything you want to have the Bible provide ‘proof’ of.
I do acknowledge that although the timing of celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25th, between the winter solstice and yearend/beginning of the New Year, lies with Mithraism – a cogent argument can be advanced that the reason for the existence and nature of the Season flows from the Christian churches and religions.
Looking back to the end of the 4th century/beginning of the 5th century, the point where Christianity triumphed, outlawed all other religions in the Empire and graduated from cult to religion [“A cult is a religion with no political power.” Tom Wolfe] we can examine the development of the Christian churches and religions and the interaction between the Christian churches and religions and the Season to see how the behaviours of church and religion shaped the character, the heart, the essence, of the Season.
Looking today around the world, around Abbotsford, at the Christian churches and religions you see astute shepherding is more in evidence today than it was at the end of the 4th century.
The cultivation of cash flow to provide salaries sufficient to attract pastors with the capability to enhance the growth of congregations, the Christian churches, the Christian religions and their wealth [properties, buildings, investments, bank accounts] .
The streets of Abbotsford provide abundant testimony as to how Christian churches and religions have, over the centuries, shaped the character and spirit, the soul of the Season. The Season of Greed.