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This volume brings together a series of articles on religion in the Roman Empire by Jan N. Bremmer, all of which have been updated and revised where necessary. Organised into four thematic sections, the author emphasises the interplay between early Christianity and its pagan surroundings but also analyses the religious developments in Late Antiquity.
Starting with Jewish history, Bremner pays particular attention to the 38 CE pogrom, the emergence of the terms 'Judaism' and 'Christianity', and the interest of Roman authors in Jewish literature, as exemplified by Vergil. The second section focuses on the mutual influences of pagans and Christians, examining subjects such as ghosts, sacrifices, miracles, and, especially, mysteries. The third section analyses various topics relating to early Christianity, such as human sacrifice, martyrs and persecutors, and the disputed dates of significant Christian texts, including the Letters of Ignatius and the Martyrdom of Polycarp. The final section examines key elements of religion in Late Antiquity, such as the demise of traditional Greek and Roman religion and Constanine's conversion.
Thanks to its wide-ranging approach and rich bibliographies, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in religion in the Roman Empire.
Starting with Jewish history, Bremner pays particular attention to the 38 CE pogrom, the emergence of the terms 'Judaism' and 'Christianity', and the interest of Roman authors in Jewish literature, as exemplified by Vergil. The second section focuses on the mutual influences of pagans and Christians, examining subjects such as ghosts, sacrifices, miracles, and, especially, mysteries. The third section analyses various topics relating to early Christianity, such as human sacrifice, martyrs and persecutors, and the disputed dates of significant Christian texts, including the Letters of Ignatius and the Martyrdom of Polycarp. The final section examines key elements of religion in Late Antiquity, such as the demise of traditional Greek and Roman religion and Constanine's conversion.
Thanks to its wide-ranging approach and rich bibliographies, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in religion in the Roman Empire.
Price: £171.20
Pages: 655
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Imprint: Mohr Siebeck
Series: Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament
Publication Date:
10 October 2025
ISBN: 9783161705625
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
Geboren 1944; 1979 Promotion; 1978-90 Associate Professor für Alte Geschichte an der Universität Utrecht; 1990-2009 Lehrstuhl für Religionswissenschaft an der Fakultät für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft der Universität Groningen; 2019-20 Fellow am Centre for Advanced Studies »Beyond Canon«, Regensburg.
Section I Jews and Judaism
1. Jews and Spartans: Abrahamic Cousins
2. Vergil and Jewish Literature
3. The First Pogrom? Religious Violence in Alexandria in AD 38?
4. Ioudaismos, Christianismos and the Parting of the Ways
Section II Pagans and Christians
II.1. The novel: Pagan and Christian
5. Priests and Priestesses in the Pagan and Christian Greek Novel
6. Ghosts, Resurrections and Empty Tombs in the Gospels, the Greek Novel and the Second Sophistic
7. Animal Sacrifice in the Novel and Late Antiquity
8. Eucharist and Agapê in the Later Second Century: The Apocryphal Acts and the Pagan Novel
9. Hellenistic and Roman Miracle Tales
II.2. Mysteries
10. Imperial Mysteries
11. Philosophers and the Mysteries
12. Celsus and Origen on the Mysteries
13. Richard Reitzenstein's Die Hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen
14. Religion and the Mysteries in Arthur Darby Nock's Conversion
Section III Early Christianity
III.1. Various themes
15. Early Christian Human Sacrifice between Fact and Fiction
16. God against the Gods: Early Christians and the Worship of Statues
17. Where Did the Early Christians Meet?
18. The Portrait of the Apostle Paul in the Acts of Paul
19. Total Devotion in the Acts of Peter
III.2. Martyrdom and Religious Violence
20. Tacitus and the Persecution of the Christians: An Invention of Tradition?
21. The Apocalypse of Peter as the First Christian Martyr Text: Its Date, Provenance and Relationship with 2 Peter
22. Imitation of Christ in the Passion of the Scillitan Martyrs?
23. Roman Judge vs. Christian Bishop: The Trial of Phileas during the Great Persecution
24. Religious Violence between Greeks, Romans, Christians and Jews
III.3. Dating and locating
25. The Onomastics and Provenance of the Acts of Paul
26. The Place, Time and Author of the Ignatian Letters: An Onomastic Approach
27. Lucian's Peregrinus, the Letters of Ignatius and the Martyrdom of Polycarp
28. Author, Date and Provenance of the Protevangelium of James
Section IV Late Antiquity
29. How Do We Explain the Quiet Demise of Graeco-Roman Religion?
30. The Conversion Vision of Constantine
31. Athanasius' Life of Antony: Marginality, Spatiality and Mediality
32. Paganism in the Hagiography of Asia Minor
33. Harnack and Late Antiquity
1. Jews and Spartans: Abrahamic Cousins
2. Vergil and Jewish Literature
3. The First Pogrom? Religious Violence in Alexandria in AD 38?
4. Ioudaismos, Christianismos and the Parting of the Ways
Section II Pagans and Christians
II.1. The novel: Pagan and Christian
5. Priests and Priestesses in the Pagan and Christian Greek Novel
6. Ghosts, Resurrections and Empty Tombs in the Gospels, the Greek Novel and the Second Sophistic
7. Animal Sacrifice in the Novel and Late Antiquity
8. Eucharist and Agapê in the Later Second Century: The Apocryphal Acts and the Pagan Novel
9. Hellenistic and Roman Miracle Tales
II.2. Mysteries
10. Imperial Mysteries
11. Philosophers and the Mysteries
12. Celsus and Origen on the Mysteries
13. Richard Reitzenstein's Die Hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen
14. Religion and the Mysteries in Arthur Darby Nock's Conversion
Section III Early Christianity
III.1. Various themes
15. Early Christian Human Sacrifice between Fact and Fiction
16. God against the Gods: Early Christians and the Worship of Statues
17. Where Did the Early Christians Meet?
18. The Portrait of the Apostle Paul in the Acts of Paul
19. Total Devotion in the Acts of Peter
III.2. Martyrdom and Religious Violence
20. Tacitus and the Persecution of the Christians: An Invention of Tradition?
21. The Apocalypse of Peter as the First Christian Martyr Text: Its Date, Provenance and Relationship with 2 Peter
22. Imitation of Christ in the Passion of the Scillitan Martyrs?
23. Roman Judge vs. Christian Bishop: The Trial of Phileas during the Great Persecution
24. Religious Violence between Greeks, Romans, Christians and Jews
III.3. Dating and locating
25. The Onomastics and Provenance of the Acts of Paul
26. The Place, Time and Author of the Ignatian Letters: An Onomastic Approach
27. Lucian's Peregrinus, the Letters of Ignatius and the Martyrdom of Polycarp
28. Author, Date and Provenance of the Protevangelium of James
Section IV Late Antiquity
29. How Do We Explain the Quiet Demise of Graeco-Roman Religion?
30. The Conversion Vision of Constantine
31. Athanasius' Life of Antony: Marginality, Spatiality and Mediality
32. Paganism in the Hagiography of Asia Minor
33. Harnack and Late Antiquity