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Today the god Mithra or Mithras is not recognized by many in the West. Mithra is often seen as just one of the many gods that was once worshiped in Europe, the Near East, and South Asia. However, in the early centuries of Christianity, one can argue the worship of Mithras rivaled influence and importance of Christianity. If Christianity had failed to plant itself in Europe, it may have been possible for Mithraism to become a lasting and significant religion in Asia and Europe. The Mithra faith may have also influenced both Christianity and other later religions.

==Mithra and Key Beliefs==

Mithra or Mithras was a god with an origin in Iran and India, where his imagery and display is often associated with the sun. The religion is mostly associated with its peak in worship that occurred around the 1st-4th century CE (or AD), where it was worshiped from Scotland to India.<ref> For more on the origins of Mithra, see: Ulansey, D. (1991). The origins of the Mithraic mysteries: cosmology and salvation in the ancient world. New York: Oxford Univ. Pr.</ref> Key beliefs include the ritual slaughter of the bull by Mithra, which would likely lead to the presence of new life or emergence of life, although the meaning is not fully understood (Figure 1). Worship centered around underground temples known as Mithraea (or Mithraeum singular) that attempted to represent caves or secret, hidden places. Sometimes, in fact, the temples were in caves (Figure 2). These temples were representative of the world and the ceremonies held were to reflect a type of global worship. The worship ceremony often involved ritual feasting and was held in a type of secrecy that members take an oath to follow and worship the god. Members would be gradually initiated into the sacred rights where a total of seven levels that worshipers had to attain being part of their spiritual journey. The religion seemed to mostly incorporate men, although this might not be the case in every place. Because no written sources have survived that directly speak to the theology, outside of small inscriptions or secondary references by writers, there is still relatively little known about the religion. However, that is probably in part because it was a type of mystery cult, intended to an orally taught faith. From Persian sources, Mithra is seen as a god of justice, a good shepherd to his people, and infallible in fighting evil.<ref>For a summary on the belief system, see: Cooper, D. J. (1996). Mithras: mysteries and initiation rediscovered. York Beach, Me: S. Weiser.</ref>