Henotheism and the Papacy

Henotheism and the Papacy

Most Roman citizens and emperors believed in many gods but focused on one particular god or considered one god higher than the others. This is Henotheism. When the Catholic Church absorbed Roman paganism, it replaced all their god’s with the saints. The Romans had a god of love, war, peace, strength, wisdom and many other gods. The Catholic Church has a saint in charge over each of these , as well as, many other catagories. Each city had it’s own god so the Catholic Church provided a saint for each city.

                                                                                                                             The papacy was created with the support of the Roman emperors. The city of Rome was the center of government for the whole Empire, and with the Roman emperors living there as well, the city rose to prominence. Constantine and his succesor's gave their support to the bishop of Rome as the supreme ruler of the church.  It was best for the Roman empire that the government and state religion be centralized. Most other bishops and Christians alike resisted the idea of the Roman bishop as being supreme. Due to the power and influence of Roman emperors, the Roman bishop eventually reigned supreme. When the empire collapsed in 476, the pope’s took the title Pontifex Maximus, a title that had previously belonged to the Roman emperors.

                                                                                                                          The origin of the Catholic church is nothing more than a compromise  of Christianity and pagan religions. Instead of converting pagans they “Christianized” the pagan religions, and paganized Christianity. The cult of Isis and Mithraism are two more of many pagan religions. I will talk about these two later.

Isis and Mithraism

The cult of Isis- mother-goddess religion in Egypt was absorbed into the Christian religion, and named Mary. Most titles used for Isis are now names for Mary. Names like “ Queen of Heaven’’, Mother of God”, and “God-bearer”. Mary’s role was exalted far beyond what is taught in the Bible in order to attract those who worshipped Isis. Most temples dedicated to Isis were then dedicated to Mary. These were the first clear hints of Catholic Mariology according to Origen. This man lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria was the main place for Isis worship.   

Mithraism was a religion in the Roman Empire from the 1^st- 5^th century AD. It was especially popular among the Roman soldiers. It was not the official religion, but it was the de facto official religion until Constantine and the Roman Emperors who succeeded him replaced it with their form of Christianity. One of the key features was eating the flesh and drinking the blood of a bull. This is called theophagy (eating one's god). Mithraism also had seven sacraments. There just too many similarities between Mithraism and Roman Catholicism to ignore. After Constantine, the church leaders found it easy to substitute the sacrificial meal of Mithraism with the Lord's supper. The  Roman’s had changed the Lord’s supper and made it a sacrificial consumption of Jesus. This is now known as mass/Eucharist.