2011 A Companion to Roman Religion

Religious Individualisation, 2023

The Roman world was diverse and complex. And so were religious understandings and practices as mirrored in the enormous variety presented by archaeological, iconographic and epigraphic sources. The goal of this collected volume is to re-think our methodologies, aiming for a more dynamic image of religion that takes into account the varied and often contradictory choices and actions of individuals and social groups, and which reflects the discrepant experiences inthe Roman Empire. Is it possible 'to poke into the mind' of an individual in Roman times? Is the concept of individuality valid for Roman times? Pdf includes Introduction, Table of Content, and Short CVs of authors.

2016

“On Roman Religion” will add the perspectives of lived ancient religion and individual appropriation to the study of Roman religious institutions and ritual. Lived religion and the individual appropriations need not to be sought at the margins of orthodox religious practices, in the niches of civic religion. These phenomena are identifiable at the heart of rituals like praying, vowing, dedicating, and reading. This book confronts the very different, strategic, and even subversive forms of individual appropriation with traditions, their normative claims, and their institutional protections. Thus the precarious state of institutions and traditions comes to the fore. These are as much means of expression and creativity for their inventors and patrons as spaces and material of experience and innovation for their users and clients. Lived ancient religion is as much about variations or even outright deviance as it is about the attempts and failures to establish or change rules and roles and to communicate them via public authorities or literary discourse. It is such roles and rules, the variations and their limits, the establishment and communication to oneself and others that constitute the material under consideration in “On Roman religion”: priesthoods, practices related to images or classified as magic, literary practices. Observations of contemporary authors like Propertius or Ovid or the author of the “Shepherd of Hermas” on religious experience are analyzed. These authors, in very different ways, reflect on individual appropriation of religion among their contemporaries, and they offer these reflections to their readership or audiences. Other chapters concentrate on the role of literary texts and inscriptions in informing practionners of rituals. The chronological arch is from the second century BCE to the second century CE. “On Roman Religion”offers a history of ancient religion that is not compartimentalized into a number of confessional histories.

Mnemosyne, 2013

2008

"This magisterial compilation personalizes and historicizes the history of religion in the city of Rome. After introductory essays on the documentary sources for the various Greek, Roman, Oriental, Jewish, and Christian cults in question, there are yearly lists of religious office-holders of various kinds, followed by 4,000 biographies of individuals who fulfilled ritual, organizational, or doctrinal roles. Concluding chapters discuss important aspects of Roman religion and its relationship with the state. The data assembled here will open up many new perspectives: on the social place of religion and certain cults, on the interplay between different religious groups, and on the organizational history of individual cults. The volume as a whole signifies a major advance in our understanding of ancient religions. Readership: Scholars and students of classics; Roman history; ancient religion; the history of Christianity and the early Church; Jewish studie"

BRILL eBooks, 2006

This volume presents the proceedings of the fifth workshop of the international thematic network 'Impact of Empire', which concentrates on the history of the Roman Empire, c. 200 B.C.-A.D. 476, and, under the chairmanship of Lukas de Blois (University of Nijmegen), brings together ancient historians, archaeologists, classicists and specialists on Roman law from some 28 European and North American universities. The proceedings of the first four workshops, held

2018

In this ambitious and authoritative book, Jörg Rüpke provides a comprehensive and strikingly original narrative history of ancient Roman and Mediterranean religion over more than a millennium—from the late Bronze Age through the Roman imperial period and up to late antiquity. While focused primarily on the city of Rome, Pantheon fully integrates the many religious traditions found in the Mediterranean world, including Judaism and Christianity. This generously illustrated book is also distinguished by its unique emphasis on lived religion, a perspective that stresses how individuals’ experiences and practices transform religion into something different from its official form. The result is a radically new picture of both Roman religion and a crucial period in Western religion—one that influenced Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and even the modern idea of religion itself. Drawing on a vast range of literary and archaeological evidence, Pantheon shows how Roman religion shaped and was shaped by its changing historical contexts from the ninth century BCE to the fourth century CE. Because religion was not a distinct sphere in the Roman world, the book treats religion as inseparable from political, social, economic, and cultural developments. The narrative emphasizes the diversity of Roman religion; offers a new view of central concepts such as “temple,” “altar,” and “votive”; reassesses the gendering of religious practices; and much more. Throughout, Pantheon draws on the insights of modern religious studies, but without “modernizing” ancient religion. With its unprecedented scope and innovative approach, Pantheon is an unparalleled account of ancient Roman and Mediterranean religion.

Scholia, 2002