One of the most respected Christians of the 20th century was Martin Luther King Jr. There is so much that we can be thankful for when it comes to fight for civil rights.
Many would be surprised to discover that King wrote an essay titled “The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity.” Here is a short selection:
It is not at all surprising in view of the wide and growing influence of these [mystery] religions that when the disciples in Antioch and elsewhere preached a crucified and risen Jesus they should be regarded as the heralds of another mystery religion, and that Jesus himself should be taken for the divine Lord of the cult through whose death and resurrection salvation was to be had. That there were striking similarities between the developing church and these religions cannot be denied. Even Christian apologists had to admit that fact.
King goes on to demonstrate the parallels between Jesus and various pagan gods/heroes. You can read the entire essay here.
Since, in addition to being a civil rights crusader, King was a theologian with a PhD, this could look like Christian support for the Jesus Myth Theory.
There are a number of things to keep in mind. One is that this is not an essay published after gaining his PhD. King was about twenty years old and was doing his Bachelor of Divinity (equivalent of the modern Master of Divinity) at Crozer Theological Seminary. That doesn’t mean that King has nothing good to say but this doesn’t necessarily reflect his mature thought.
I actually think that King goes too far in his parallels and that he uncritically accepts some of the claims of similarity that were popular in the first half of the 20th century.
But King isn’t even claiming that the Christians just took over pagan myths and turned them into a new Christian myth. King states:
This is not to say that the early Christians sat down and copied these views verbatim. But after being in contact with these surrounding religions and hearing certain doctrines expressed, it was only natural for some of these views to become a part of their subconscious minds. When they sat down to write they were expressing consciously that which had dwelled in their subconscious minds.
Here I still think Kings is giving away too much, but he is still not going the whole way to Mythicism in suggesting that Jesus wasn’t historical and was just borrowed from the myths.
King’s teacher gave this comment on the essay:
This is very good and I am glad to have your conclusion. It is not so much that Christianity was influenced by the Mystery Cults, or borrowed from them, but that in the long process of history this religion developed. It, Christianity, is the expression of the longing of people for light, truth, salvation, security.
This sentiment is fairly close to the ideas held by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Was Martin Luther King Jr. a Jesus Mythicist? No, he was not. King believed in a historical Jesus who died and rose again.
Did Luther think that the mystery religions influenced how the New Testament authors wrote and how early Christians interacted with their pagan neighbours. Yes he did.
King makes some good points in his essay, especially on how some of the post-biblical traditions developed. But none of this helps the Jesus Myth Theory.
