Download or read book Baptism and Resurrection written by Alexander J. M. Wedderburn and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The assumption that Romans 6 and 1 Corinthians 15 reflects a borrowing of ideas from Graeco-Roman mystery initiations is not the likeliest explanation of these texts nor does justice either to recent studies of the mysteries nor to the difficulty in reinterpreting resurrection to refer to a spiritual state which the baptized enjoyed in the present. Spiritual phenomena may have shown early Christians in the Graeco-Roman world that they had life, but not resurrection. Dying with Christ has other roots than the mysteries and the latter should not be interpreted in the light of Paul, but dying and coming to life again is a theme common to a great many rites of passage.