Traditional African Rituals and Contemporary Times.
During the fertile period of the gestation of Christianity in the Graeco-Roman world the early Christians, who are often referred to as the Fathers of the Church, attacked the mystery religions that predated Christianity because of the disturbing analogies that existed between the rites and practices of these religions and Christianity. However, contact with religions such as the Mithraic cult, which was the state religion under Emperor Diocletian was unavoidable in any city because there were more than 100 places of assembly for the devotees of Mithra in Rome alone (Kofi Appiah-Kubi & Sergio Torres, 1979). On the one hand, the Fathers attacked the resemblances between the mysteries and Christianity as one of the activities of the demon who is both author of heresy and 'pagan' worship. This however, was deemed to be a rather cheap argument for a group in an inferior position that had a superiority complex.
Despite this antagonism, the Fathers were immersed in the Graeco-Roman world of philosophies, mysteries, cults, and syncretism. They not only admitted but also prided themselves over the fact that that they felt Christianity was a better philosophy (Kofi Appiah-Kubi & Sergio Torres, 1979, p.87). "Beautiful catecheses [oral teachings] that came down from the period are called mystagogic catecheses" (Lease, 1980, p. 1306) because they were presented entirely with the use of the mystery language. In addition, the new story of Jesus' death and resurrection was formulated in the sumptuous language of the mysteries. The narrative of Christianity presented a story of salvation accomplished through the life of a Savior who was both human and divine, but individuals had to embrace this salvation by going through a ritual process where they are led through the darkness of evil demons to gain soteria or salvation (Haase, 1978).
