The gods, the state, and the individual : reflections on civic religion in Rome / John Scheid ; translated and with a foreword by Clifford Ando.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scheid, John, author.

Contributor:

Ando, Clifford, translator, author of introduction, etc.

Series:

Empire and after.

Empire and After

Standardized Title:

Dieux, l'etat et l'individu. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion and state--Rome.

Cults--Rome.

Rome--Religion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (200 pages)

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Roman religion has long presented a number of challenges to historians approaching the subject from a perspective framed by the three Abrahamic religions. The Romans had no sacred text that espoused its creed or offered a portrait of its foundational myth. They described relations with the divine using technical terms widely employed to describe relations with other humans. Indeed, there was not even a word in classical Latin that corresponds to the English word religion. In The Gods, the State, and the Individual, John Scheid confronts these and other challenges directly. If Roman religious practice has long been dismissed as a cynical or naïve system of borrowed structures unmarked by any true piety, Scheid contends that this is the result of a misplaced expectation that the basis of religion lies in an individual's personal and revelatory relationship with his or her god. He argues that when viewed in the light of secular history as opposed to Christian theology, Roman religion emerges as a legitimate phenomenon in which rituals, both public and private, enforced a sense of communal, civic, and state identity. Since the 1970's, Scheid has been one of the most influential figures reshaping scholarly understanding of ancient Roman religion. The Gods, the State, and the Individual presents a translation of Scheid's work that chronicles the development of his field-changing scholarship.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Translator’s Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Critique of Polis-Religion

Chapter 2. Polis and Republic

Chapter 3. The Individual in the City

Chapter 4. Civic Religion

Chapter 5. Civic Religion and Identity

Chapter 6. For Whom Were the Rituals Celebrated?

Chapter 7. Religious Repression

Chapter 8. Civic Religion, a Modality of Communal Religion

Chapter 9. Emotion and Belief

Chapter 10. Why Did Roman Religion Change?

Chapter 11. The Gods, the State, and the Individual

Notes

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780812291988

0812291980

OCLC:

929889663