Graeco-Roman Religion in the Roman Empire: Old Assumptions and New Approaches

This article surveys recent trends in research on Graeco-Roman religion, focusing on the first and second centuries CE. In the first half, I assess current views on what I call the old ‘master narrative’ of Graeco-Roman religious history in this period, that is, the assumption that the decline of tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Currents in biblical research
Main Author: Rives, James B. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2010
In: Currents in biblical research
Further subjects:B mystery religion
B oriental religion
B imperial cult
B polis religion
B Graeco-Roman religion
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:This article surveys recent trends in research on Graeco-Roman religion, focusing on the first and second centuries CE. In the first half, I assess current views on what I call the old ‘master narrative’ of Graeco-Roman religious history in this period, that is, the assumption that the decline of traditional Graeco-Roman religion left a void filled on the one hand by the purely political phenomenon of imperial cult and on the other by mystery/oriental religions, which met the emotional needs of the populace. In the second half I discuss two areas of interest that have come to the fore in the wake of the old master narrative’s collapse: an approach to interpreting traditional Graeco-Roman religion that some scholars have termed the ‘polis -religion model’, and a focus on religious life in the provinces of the Roman empire. As an appendix I include a brief survey of available scholarly resources in this field.
ISSN:1745-5200
Contains:Enthalten in: Currents in biblical research
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/1476993X09347454