JESUS, The Last Great Initiate by Édouard Schuré is a philosophical and esoteric examination of the life of Jesus Christ. In this concise book Schuré asks the central question ‘How did Jesus become the Messiah?’ In answering his own question Schuré states in his Preface that – ‘It is by means of this esoteric light, the inner flame of all religions, the central truth of all fruitful philosophy, that I have attempted to reconstruct along its main lines, the life of Jesus, taking into account whatever previous historical criticism has hitherto cleared and prepared the ground.’ The author offers insight into some of the transcendent truths revealed by the Master Jesus as a way to interpret and decipher the great mystery around Jesus’ mission on Earth. By referring to biblical accounts throughout his text Schuré maintains a spiritual-philosophical treatise that is grounded in historical and literary context. And along the way, some interesting suggestions are offered to the attentive reader.
CHAPTER I
CONDITION OF THE WORLD AT THE BIRTH OF JESUS
A SOLEMN period of the world’s destiny was approaching; the sky was overshadowed with darkness and filled with sinister omens.
READ MOREIn spite of the efforts of the initiates, polytheism, throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe, had terminated only in the downfall of civilization. The sublime cosmogony of Orpheus, so gloriously chanted by Homer, had not been attained, and the only explanation possible is that human nature found great difficulty in maintaining a certain intellectual altitude. For the great spirits of antiquity, the gods were never anything more than a poetical expression of the subordinated forces of Nature, a speaking image of its inner organism; it is as symbols of cosmic and animic forces that these gods live indestructible in the consciousness of humanity. This diversity of gods and forces, the initiates thought, was dominated and penetrated by the supreme God or pure Spirit. The principal aim of the sanctuaries of Memphis, Delphi, and Eleusis had been precisely the teaching of this unity of God with the theosophical ideas and moral discipline resulting therefrom.
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