Friday repost: Christmas and the Sun of God
Every Friday I dig into the archives to repost something of meaning in today’s world. Today I offer this alternative history of the religion of Christmas – please note that I mean no disrespect to any individual religion and apologize in advance for any of my readers who are offended.
The fact that our Judeo-Christian mythos is a derivation of earlier religions and legends has moved into the mainstream, and the idea that the divinity of Jesus has parallels with other gods is no longer a shocking idea. Most of […]
During the later Roman Empire, the Emperor Aurelian introduced the official cult of Sol Invictus which honored the sun-god as the primary divinity of the entire empire. Although the solar deity had been worshiped throughout time and in many ancient cultures, it was the cult of Mithraism that was the final solar cult before the spread of Christianity wiped out virtually all pagan religions.