The Religious History of the Roman Empire Pagans, Jews, and Christians

by North, J. A.; Price, S. R. F.

• ISBN13: 9780199567348
• ISBN10: 0199567344
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-07-21
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This collection of papers, many of them either published here in English for the first time or previously available only in specialist libraries, deals with the religious history of the Roman Empire. Written by leading scholars, the essays have contributed to a revolutionary change in our understanding of the religious situation of the time, and illuminate both the world religions of Christianity and Judaism and the religious life of the pagan Empire in which these developed andwhich deeply influenced their characters. No knowledge of ancient languages is presupposed, so the book is accessible to all who are interested in the history of this crucial period.

Author Biography

J. A. North is Emeritus Professor of History at University College London.

S. R. F. Price is Emeritus Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

Table of Contents

Introduction, John North & Simon Price
I. Changes in Religious Life: Roman and Civic Cults
1. Roman Religion and the Religion of Empire: Some Reflections on Method, Jorg Rupke
2. The Roman Imperial Cult and the Question of Power, Richard Gordon
3. Magic in Roman Law: The Reconstruction of a Crime, J. B. Rives
4. New Combinations and New Statuses: The Indigenous Gods in the Pantheons of the Cities of Roman Gaul, William Van Andringa
5. Hypsistos: A Way of Exalting the Gods in Graeco-Roman Polytheism, Nicole Belayche
6. On the Uses and Disadvantages of Divination: Oracles and their Literary Representations in the Time of the Second Sophistic, Andreas Bendlin
II. Elective Cults
7. Homogeneity and Diversity in the Religions of Rome, Simon Price
8. Oriental Mysteries and Cults: A Problem in the History of Religions, Giulia Sfameni Gasparro
9. Ritual and Hierarchy in the Mysteries of Mithras, Richard Gordon
10. Community and Community: Reflections on Some Ambiguities Based on the Thiasoi of Roman Egypt, John Scheid
III. Coexistence of Religions, Old and New
11. Acculturation and Identity in the Diaspora: A Jewish Family and 'Pagan' Guilds at Hierapolis, Philip Harland
12. Josephus and Variety in First-Century Judaism, Martin Goodman
13. The Forging of Christian Identity and the Letter To Diognetus, Judith Lieu
14. Purification and its Discontents: Mani's Rejection of Baptism, Guy G. Stroumsa
15. Pagans, Polytheists and the Pendulum, J. A. North
IV. Late Antiquity
16. Early Christianity and the Discourse of Female Desire, Averil Cameron
17. Enjoying the Saints in Late Antiquity, Peter Brown