Christianity spread through the psychic web?

Super interesting:

In Leviathan Thomas Hobbes casually references the oracle at Delphi losing her connection to the old gods because Christ’s death and resurrection sealed them away as if it was common knowledge

Something few modern Christians seem to have ever heard of [source]

And:

Athanasius bases an argument on that exact thing in On The Incarnation. He speaks of it as a well-known fact and taunts the pagans with the loss of magic and prophecy. [source]

As to the former I could only find this:

HOBBES: And whereas in the planting of Christian Religion, the Oracles ceased in all parts of the Roman Empire, and the number of Christians encreased wonderfully every day, and in every place, by the preaching of the Apostles, and Evangelists; [source]

The latter is more explicit:

ATHANASIUS: When did human beings begin to abandon the worship of idols, except since the true God Word of God came among human beings? Or when did have the oracles ceased amongst the Greeks and everywhere ceased and become empty, except since the Savior revealed himself upon earth?…Or when were the deceit and madness of the demons of the demons despised, except when the Power of God, the word, the Master of all, even of these, condescended, because of the weakness of humans, to appear on earth? (§46, page 99).

And formerly everywhere was filled with the deceit of the oracles, and the utterances of those in Delphi and Dodona and Boeotia and Lycia and Libya and Egypt and Cabiri and the Pythoness were admired in the imaginations of human beings. But now, since Christ is announced everywhere, their madness has also ceased and no longer is there anyone among them giving oracles. Formerly demons deceived human fancy…but now, after the divine manifestation of the Word has taken place, their illusion has ceased. (§47, page 100). [source]

Interesting thoughts, that Divinity being incarnated upon the planet in the form of Christ (ie a fully Enlightened being) was responsible for ending the hallucinations and imaginations and illusions of the oracles (to be replaced with different ones of course :joy:)

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Claudiu: (…) Interesting thoughts, that Divinity being incarnated upon the planet in the form of Christ (i.e. a fully Enlightened being) was responsible for ending the hallucinations and imaginations and illusions of the oracles (to be replaced with different ones of course). (link)

Hi Claudiu,

An interesting find.

As to your parenthesised words in the last paragraph, Richard did not even consider Christ having been fully enlightened. I could only find one written source for this, based on Christ’s supposed last words, even though I was familiar with Richard’s evaluation long before Richard wrote the extensive examen on “The Rise Of Buddhism” –

Richard: … it is not even remotely fanciable as Mr. Gotama the Sakyan, the fully enlightened/ fully awakened “sammāsambuddha”, was a “fuller light” [sic] than Mr. Yeshua the Nazarene, whose famous last words – “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”; (KJV; ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’) – speak for themselves …
Source: An Examen of ‘The Rise of Buddhism’ from “The Church Quarterly Review” (1882). (link, 4th paragraph).

Considering Christ’s last words I fully agree with Richard’s assessment.

Given that the Christian vibes and psychic currents steeped in their morals, ethics and principles emanate from every pulpit as well as every loyal believer – just as similar vibes and psychic currents flow from followers of any other belief-system, it is a perfect time to replace them with felicitous and innocuous vibes.

Cheers Vineeto