Franz Cumont, the oriental religions, and christianity in the roman empire: a hegelian view on the evolution of religion, politics, and science

Cumont (1868-1947) was influenced by Hegel’s view on the religious evolution of mankind. He discussed the role the Oriental Religions (Attis and Cybele, Isis and Serapis, the Syrian Baals, Mithras) played in the transition from paganism to Christianity as an interaction between politics and religion: as an evolution from the particular to the universal, from state-controlled to free individual choice. They evolved from primitive ritualism to austere morality, and represented a synthesis between East and West. His book on their spread in Roman paganism is not entirely chronological but corresponds to a symbolic sequence: Firmicus Maternus already linked them with the four elements (from Cybele-earth to Mithras-fire) so these Religions formed an ascension from the heaviest to the least material element. Cumont presented astral religion as the final stage of paganism, including aether, and establishing an “objective” (pseudoscientific) link between man and the cosmos, pointing to Christianity as the next step in this spiritual journey