Religious Deviance in the Roman World: Superstition or Individuality?

Jörg Rüpke

May 2016 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

Religious individuality is not restricted to modernity. This book offers a new reading of the ancient sources in order to find indications for the spectrum of religious practices and intensified forms of such practices only occasionally denounced as 'superstition'. Authors from Cicero in the first century BC to the law codes of the fourth century AD share the assumption that authentic and binding communication between individuals and gods is possible and widespread, even if problematic in the case of divination or the confrontation with images of the divine. A change in practices and assumptions throughout the imperial period becomes visible. It might be characterised as 'individualisation' and informed the Roman law of religions. The basic constellation - to give freedom of religion and to regulate religion at the same time - resonates even into modern bodies of law and is important for juridical conflicts today.

About the author

Jörg Rüpke was Chair of Comparative Religion at the University of Erfurt from 1999 to 2015, and is now permanent Fellow for Religious Studies at the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies. He is also co-director of the Research Group 'Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective' and director of the ERC research project 'Lived Ancient Religion'. Since 2012, he has been a member of the German Council of Science and Humanities ('Wissenschaftsrat') and since 2013, Vice-Director of the Max Weber Center. His authored books include Rituals in Ink (2004), The Religions of the Romans (2007), Fasti sacerdotum (2008), The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine: Time, History, and the Fasti (2011), Religion in Republican Rome: Rationalization and Ritual Change (2012), Ancients and Moderns: Religion (2013) and From Jupiter to Christ (2014). He has also edited Religion and Law in Classical and Christian Rome (co-edited with Clifford Ando, 2006), A Companion to Roman Religion (2007), Reflections on Religious Individuality (2013) and A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean (co-edited with Rubina Raja, 2015).