Synthesis of the Role of Religion in Euro/America's Societies

First & Second Millennia A.D.

Author: Pamphleteer Europa

WARNING!

If you are not comfortable with having your beliefs challenged you would probably not want to read this. If you wish, however, to expand your knowledge about Christianity and Jesus, then you are at the right place.

In contrast with the major Asiatic Religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, when Europe emerged for the first time as a "Great Power" after the end of the last Ice Age, the progenitor of "Western" societal structure the Roman Empire, established definitively the Function (sic) of Religion.

Firstly, it was to be a state religion and as such to "service" the interests/requirements of the property owning/military oligarchy. The two Asiatic faiths serviced the needs of the individual and had therefore a genuine democratic basis, the very antithesis of the "Dictat" inherent then and now in the "theology" and structures of the Mithrasian/Christian religions.

Then "Religion" in order to serve the economic, political, military, and social needs of the "The Haves" was to be founded upon a "religious" structure replicating that of the Roman society. In today's Catholic Church such replication continues the Pope continuing with the absolutist powerof the emperor, the cardinals, the roman aristrocracy (the are still referred to as, "The Princes of the Church) and the bishops ruling (sic) in their dioceses (a diocese was the basic political unit of the Roman Empire). Thus the actual state structure wof its own progenitor, the Roman Empire is still faithfully re-produced in the Church of Rome. In the matter of the "Reformed" Churches - Anglican, Lutheran and Epicopalian, those dominant in England, Germany and the USA, although de jure they do not have the Pope. de facto, this role is encompassed albeit in a muted fashion within the jurisdiction of the Senior Archbishop. The other structures of these Churches reflect their Roman antecedents.

Lastly, the "Religion" must have precise and detailed rules governing and inculcating in the "Masses" a mode of living which renders them in so far as it succeeds totally subservient to their controlling Rulers, the "Haves"

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One of the fundamental "mysteries" of the Christian/Mithrasian "Faith" is labelled, "The Holy Trinity", depicted as representing God, "The Father", "The Son", and "The Holy Spirit". In its origins this was an extrapolation of some of the Political/Social concepts which underlined the Roman State and refined by such emperors as Constantine I and Julius, who in the design and building of the new city of Constantinople in the 4th century actually constructed and arranted three structures to reflect this concept. There physical remains are observable today in Istanbul

These were the Emperor's Palace, the Hippodrome, and a Church, all arranged with a physical contiguity. The Palace seat of the emperor/Pontifex Maximus was home to the political/spiritual  "Father". The Hippodrome which was the official Public Space/Arena and was dependent on the Sun for illumination was home to the "Son". The Church seat of the "Holy Ghost", the fort of spiritual wisdom, was where the Emperof sat as Chief Priest, ex officio.

The foregoing "theological" concepts neatly spiritualized the " real politik" of the Roman System and enabled establishment to control the people both physically and psychologically using an identical format. In the 21st. century when nascent democracy operates widely on the planet such a concept in both it's forms may be viewed as inappropriate. Particularly perhaps the "spiritual" legacy remembering that in its origins it was essentially a slick and subliminal form "Brainwashing", relating to the very real earthly power of the Roman emperors to a heavenly equivalent.

Sources: "Byzantium" a B.B.C. documentary viewed 10/07/2000

"Imperial Rome" by Moses Hadas of Columbia University, USA

The other essays by the Pampleteer will be here shortly... as soon as I get breathing time :) -- NOVO

To send comments, requests, questions or condemnation E-mail: [email protected]N

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