Research: WR152: Temples, Shrines, & Bathhouses: Religion in the Roman Empire: Getting Started

Dura-Europos

"Excavated by Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters in the 1920s and 1930s, Dura-Europos is a fascinating crossroads of ancient cultures. The unearthed synagogue, Christian building, and Mithraeum — and the over 12,000 artifacts of daily life now preserved at the Yale University Art Gallery — present a vivid picture of life in a Roman city in the third century A.D." Click image for source.

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Image: What would a writer do with this source? by Kristin M. Woodward/Kate L. Ganski is licensed under CC BY 4.0

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Course Readings

Paganism in the Roman Empire by Ramsay MacMullen "MacMullen...has published several books in recent years which establish him, rightfully, as a leading social historian of the Roman Empire. The current volume exhibits many of the characteristics of its predecessors: the presentation of novel, revisionist points of view...; discrete set pieces of trenchant argument which do not necessarily conform to the boundaries of traditional history; and an impressive, authoritative, and up-to-date documentation, especially rich in primary sources...A stimulating and provocative discourse on Roman paganism as a phenomenon worthy of synthetic investigation in its own right and as the fundamental context for the rise of Christianity."--Richard Brilliant, History "MacMullen's latest work represents many features of paganism in its social context more vividly and clearly than ever before."--Fergus Millar, American Historical Review "The major cults...are examined from a social and cultural perspective and with the aid of many recently published specialized studies...Students of the Roman Empire...should read this book."--Robert J, Penella, Classical World "A distinguished book with much exact observation...An indispensable mine of erudition on a grand theme." Henry Chadwick, Times Literary Supplement Ramsay MacMullen is Dunham Professor of History and Classics at Yale University and the author of Roman Government's Response to Crisis, A.D. 235-337 and Roman Social Relations, 50 B.C. to A.D. 284
Location: Also in print: Mugar Stacks BL802 .M32
Publication Date: 1983
Religions of Rome: v. 1. A history -- v. 2. A sourcebook. by Mary Beard; John North; Simon Price This book offers a radical new survey of more than a thousand years of religious life at Rome. It sets religion in its full cultural context, between the primitive hamlet of the eighth century BC and the cosmopolitan, multicultural society of the first centuries of the Christian era. The narrative account is structured around a series of broad themes: how to interpret the Romans' own theories of their religious system and its origins; the relationship of religion and the changing politics of Rome; the religious importance of the layout and monuments of the city itself; changing ideas of religious identity and community; religious innovation - and, ultimately, revolution. The companion volume, Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook, sets out a wide range of documents richly illustrating the religious life in the Roman world.
Location: Mugar Stacks BL802 .B43 1998 & Theology Library Open Stacks BL802 .B43 1998 & online via HathiTrust
The Roman Cult of Mithras by Manfred Clauss First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Location: Mugar Stacks BL1585 .C5313 2001
From the Maccabees to the Mishnah by Cohen, Shaye J. D.
Publication Date: 2014
Ancient Synagogue : the first thousand years by Lee I. Levine A history of the synagogue from the Hellenistic period to the end of late antiquity. It traces its development from a communal institution to one which had a distinctively religious profile, describing its basic features, the roles of its rabbis and priests, its liturgy, and its art.
Location: Also in print: Theology Library Oversize BM653 .L38 2000
Publication Date: 2nd ed 2005 (online)
The Archaeology of the Holy Land : from the destruction of Solomon's Temple to the Muslim conquest by Jodi Magness This book provides an introduction to the archaeology and history of ancient Palestine - modern Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories - from the destruction of Solomon's temple in 586 BCE to the Muslim conquest in 640 CE. Special attention is paid to the archaeology of Jerusalem and the Second Temple period, in the time of Herod the Great and Jesus. For each period, the book offers a historical background for the Mediterranean world and the ancient Near East, as well as the events in Palestine. Major sites such as Masada, Caesarea Maritima and Petra are examined in archaeological and historical detail, along with the material culture - coins, pottery, glass and stone vessels - of each period. This book provides a thorough overview of the archaeology of this historically vibrant part of the world.
Location: Theology Library Open Stacks DS111 .M324 2012
Augustus to Constantine: the rise and triumph of Christianity in the Roman world by Robert M. Grant
Location: Theology Library Open Stacks BR165 .G66 1990
The Cult of the Saints : its rise and function in Latin Christianity by Peter Brown Following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, the cult of the saints was the dominant form of religion in Christian Europe. In this elegantly written work, Peter Brown explores the role of tombs, shrines, relics, and pilgrimages connected with the sacred bodies of the saints. He shows how men and women living in harsh and sometimes barbaric times relied upon the merciful intercession of the holy dead to obtain justice, forgiveness, and to find new ways to accept their fellows. Challenging the common treatment of the cult as an outbreak of superstition among the lower classes, Brown demonstrates how this form of religiousity engaged the finest minds of the Church and elicited from members of the educated upper classes some of their most splendid achievements in poetry, literature, and the patronage of the arts. Brown has an international reputation for his fine style, a style he here turns on to illuminate the cult of the saints. Christianity was born without such a cult; it took rise and that rise needs chronicling. Brown has a gift for the memorable phrase and sees what the passersby have often overlooked. An eye-opener on an important but neglected phase of Western development.--The Christian Century Brilliantly original and highly sophisticated . . . . The Cult of the Saints] is based on great learning in several disciplines, and the story is told with an exceptional appreciation for the broad social context. Students of many aspects of medieval culture, especially popular religion, will want to consult this work.--Bennett D. Hill, Library Journal
Location: Also in print: Mugar Stacks BX2333 .B74 & Theology Library Open Stacks BX2333 .B74
Publication Date: 1982
Writing on the Wall Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity by Karen B. Stern Few direct clues exist to the everyday lives and beliefs of ordinary Jews in antiquity. Prevailing perspectives on ancient Jewish life have been shaped largely by the voices of intellectual and social elites, preserved in the writings of Philo and Josephus and the rabbinic texts of the Mishnah and Talmud. Commissioned art, architecture, and formal inscriptions displayed on tombs and synagogues equally reflect the sensibilities of their influential patrons. The perspectives and sentiments of nonelite Jews, by contrast, have mostly disappeared from the historical record. Focusing on these forgotten Jews of antiquity, Writing on the Wall takes an unprecedented look at the vernacular inscriptions and drawings they left behind and sheds new light on the richness of their quotidian lives. Just like their neighbors throughout the eastern and southern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Egypt, ancient Jews scribbled and drew graffiti everyplace--in and around markets, hippodromes, theaters, pagan temples, open cliffs, sanctuaries, and even inside burial caves and synagogues. Karen Stern reveals what these markings tell us about the men and women who made them, people whose lives, beliefs, and behaviors eluded commemoration in grand literary and architectural works. Making compelling analogies with modern graffiti practices, she documents the overlooked connections between Jews and their neighbors, showing how popular Jewish practices of prayer, mortuary commemoration, commerce, and civic engagement regularly crossed ethnic and religious boundaries. Illustrated throughout with examples of ancient graffiti, Writing on the Wall provides a tantalizingly intimate glimpse into the cultural worlds of forgotten populations living at the crossroads of Judaism, Christianity, paganism, and earliest Islam.
Publication Date: 2018
Lucian: on the Syrian Goddess by Lucian; Lucian; J. L. Lightfoot (Editor) This is the first edition of and full-length commentary on On the Syrian Goddess, an Ionic ethnography of the Holy City of Hierapolis in northern Syria, where the Syrian goddess Atargatis was worshipped. This treatise is one of the most important literary sources for 'oriental' religions underthe Roman Empire. Traditionally ascribed to Lucian of Samosata, the work has often been viewed as satire. Lightfoot argues for a much subtler reading, for the first time combining a literary and philological approach with the evidence of archaeology to set this complex treatise in the fullestpossible context. The result bears on the religious culture of Roman Syria; on the genre of Herodotean ethnography and its revival and reception in the Second Sophistic; and on Lucian of Samosata himself. The edition is based on a fresh collation of all existing manuscripts and an Englishtranslation is provided.
Location: Theology Library Open Stacks BL1060 .L7813 2003
Roman Religion by J. A. North The religion of the Greeks and Romans in the period before and after the invention of Christianity provides a special kind of foil to our understanding of modern world religions. Firstly, it provides the religious background against which Judaism, Christianity and eventually Islam first aroseand it deeply influenced their development. Secondly, in the period before these religions developed, it provides us with a model of a sophisticated society that had no such autonomous religions at work in it at all. All too often books have been constructed on the assumption that religion was amarginal part of life, interesting perhaps in an antiquarian way, but scarcely needing to be placed at the centre of our understanding. But the fact is that religious activity formed part of every other activity in the ancient world; and so far from placing it in the margin of our accounts, itneeds to be assessed at every point, in every transaction.This New Survey offers a picture of Roman religion and of some of the current debates about its character and development. The focus of the survey is the religious experience of the Roman people from about the third century BC to the second century AD. It does not attempt to discuss theestablishment of Christianity as the main religion of the Empire in the fourth century; nor to do more than survey earlier theories about the earliest period of Rome as a city.
Publication Date: 2000 - online via HathiTrust