identified with the Supreme God; for
instance, in Mithraism the Sun, not Mithras, was originally the supreme
God, though in the last stages of the cult the difference between the
two was apparently blurred, and Mithras became indistinguishable from
the Sun.

The Christianity revealed in 1 Corinthians clearly conforms to this
type. It has its Lord, Jesus, who is far more than human, but is not
identified with the supreme God "the Father";[2] he has suffered on
earth, but been glorified and exalted, and Christians who accept him in
faith, and are initiated into the Church by the sacrament of Baptism,
obtain a share in his glory, and will enjoy a blessed immortality. The
general resemblance is striking and undeniable. It may be summarised,
as was said above, by the statement that Christianity offered men
salvation, and was believed to fulfil its offer. Indeed, its success
was partly due not to any difference from the other cults, but to the
fact that it made more exclusive claims, combined with a higher ethical
standard, than any other.

But what exactly was meant by salvation? No single answer can be
given. In one sense salvation was primarily an eschatological concept,
though its formulation was different among Jewish-minded and
Greek-minded believers. The Jew meant, in the main, that, at the great
day when the dead {76} would rise and join the living before the
judgement seat of God, he would be safe from the Divine Wrath, be
acquitted, and have a place among those who would live in happiness in
the Age to Come. The Greek probably thought rather that each soul
which was saved would pass at death to a happier and better existence.
Ultimately these two strands of eschatology were woven together, though
scarcely reconciled, in the elaborate fabric of the Catholic system of
purgatory, paradise, resurrection, judgement, heaven and hell.

In another sense salvation meant something different, which was not
eschatological. In accordance with the general spirit of the
Graeco-Oriental mysteries, there existed a belief that through
sacraments men could change their nature, be born again, and--as
Irenaeus puts it--become the children of the eternal and unchangeable
God instead of the children of mortal man.[3] In this way they passed,
even before death, into eternal life, and they were raised to an
existence beyond the reach of Fate. The basis of this concept was
doubtless astral, and at least some early Christians be