Roman Religion by J A North

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 arose and 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 a marginal 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, it needs 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 the establishment 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.

North, J. A.: - J.A. North has taught Roman History at UCL since the 1960s; his research has played an important part in the reassessment of Roman religion throughout the period.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780199224333
ISBN 10	0199224331
Title	Roman Religion
Author	J A North
Series	New Surveys In The Classics
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	2000-11-01
Number of pages	108
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.