A review by socraticgadfly
The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name, by Brian C. Muraresku
medium-paced
0.0
It’s pretty clear that Muraresku comes to the subject with preconceived notions. One of them is a Dan Brown-type take on the bible, but other one-star reviewers miss some aspects of that, and other issues. I’ll get there by a roundabout path.
(Cut-to-the-chase insert: The fact that Deepak and Andrew Weil are among the blurbers? Nuff ced.)
Did the Mysteries at Eleusis involve the barley-wine drink also containing hallucinogens? Possibly.
If so, was this most likely ergot, which can grow on barley and wheat as well as rye? Yes. The Mediterranean vrsion of an ayahuesca mix to release DMT has also been suggested, as has the opium poppy.
Did this lead to the Christian Eucharist? Absolutely not.
First, in all likelihood, Paul didn’t base (sic) the Eucharist on Eleusis. The “sic” is that Paul claims direct revelation from god in I Corinthians with “what I have received …” and refutes being influenced by Jerusalem. On the Jewish side, were there elements of a Passover observance that Paul may have incorporated? Maybe. Maybe not. Since he invented the Eucharist, without any historicization, it might not have been at Passover. In any case, nothing like a full seder existed until medieval Judaism.
In all likelihood, Paul was most influenced by Hellenestic guilds and their meals, usually monthly or so, which were a lower-class, workers’ world version of a philosophers’ symposium.
In addition, Paul’s challenge to the people of Corinth about their behavior at the Eucharist further undercuts the idea that he was riffing off Eleusis or similar.
After that, Muraresku’s quasi-DaVinci Code riffs on Christianity get worse. Female-led cultic worship ultimately repressed by the evil church at Rome. This, in turn, ignores that pagan Rome wasn’t anti-women in religion, as others note.
But, from the above, the angle the other low-rated reviewers are missing is that this is not how the Eucharist developed. It also ignores that Rome wasn’t even close to being the center of early Christianity.
An introduction by pseudoscientist Graham Hancock doesn’t help.
And, that leads to something else others haven’t noted.
This is really about an entheogen-based version of Aldous Huxley’s “perennial philosophy.” And, since old Aldous himself liked himself some entheogens ...
(Cut-to-the-chase insert: The fact that Deepak and Andrew Weil are among the blurbers? Nuff ced.)
Did the Mysteries at Eleusis involve the barley-wine drink also containing hallucinogens? Possibly.
If so, was this most likely ergot, which can grow on barley and wheat as well as rye? Yes. The Mediterranean vrsion of an ayahuesca mix to release DMT has also been suggested, as has the opium poppy.
Did this lead to the Christian Eucharist? Absolutely not.
First, in all likelihood, Paul didn’t base (sic) the Eucharist on Eleusis. The “sic” is that Paul claims direct revelation from god in I Corinthians with “what I have received …” and refutes being influenced by Jerusalem. On the Jewish side, were there elements of a Passover observance that Paul may have incorporated? Maybe. Maybe not. Since he invented the Eucharist, without any historicization, it might not have been at Passover. In any case, nothing like a full seder existed until medieval Judaism.
In all likelihood, Paul was most influenced by Hellenestic guilds and their meals, usually monthly or so, which were a lower-class, workers’ world version of a philosophers’ symposium.
In addition, Paul’s challenge to the people of Corinth about their behavior at the Eucharist further undercuts the idea that he was riffing off Eleusis or similar.
After that, Muraresku’s quasi-DaVinci Code riffs on Christianity get worse. Female-led cultic worship ultimately repressed by the evil church at Rome. This, in turn, ignores that pagan Rome wasn’t anti-women in religion, as others note.
But, from the above, the angle the other low-rated reviewers are missing is that this is not how the Eucharist developed. It also ignores that Rome wasn’t even close to being the center of early Christianity.
An introduction by pseudoscientist Graham Hancock doesn’t help.
And, that leads to something else others haven’t noted.
This is really about an entheogen-based version of Aldous Huxley’s “perennial philosophy.” And, since old Aldous himself liked himself some entheogens ...