When? The first three hundred years after Jesus’s death. Before Christianity became legal under Constantine, it was an illegal mystery religion fighting for survival in a hostile and unfriendly world. Its secret meetings and magical sacraments came under just as much suspicion as the Dionysian Mysteries that were systematically targeted by the Roman senate in 186 BC. The idea of the God of Ecstasy obliterating all loyalty to family and country was not welcome in a Roman Empire in the thick of nation building. Similarly the idea of making visionary wine available to the poor folks and women of
...more
