Von Jupiter zu Christus: Religionsgeschichte in römischer Zeit

by Jörg Rüpke

Die Religionsgeschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit ist von grundlegender Bedeutung für die Religionsgeschichte Europas. Es ist die Epoche der Entstehung eines umfassenden, administrativ und ökonomisch eng vernetzten mediterranen Kulturraumes, der die schnelle Verbreitung von Ideen ermöglichte. In diesem Raum und in dieser Epoche vollzieht sich die Ausbreitung des Christentums. Während sich aber bisherige Darstellungen der Religionsgeschichte auf additive Beschreibungen einzelner Kulte und Religionen beschränken, sieht Jörg Rüpke in der Veränderung des gesellschaftlichen Stellenwertes von Religion überhaupt das entscheidende Kriterium dieser Epoche. Religion ist jetzt nicht mehr nur Antwort auf individuelle menschliche Kontingenz (Krankheit, Unsicherheit, Tod), sondern wird zu einem umfassenden Zusammenhang menschlicher Lebensführung und zur Formulierung von Gruppenidentitäten und politischer Legitimation.

548 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Sasha Alessandro Volpi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fortemente differente rispetto a quanto si propone, due stelle giusto per il rigore scientifico. Mi aspettavo, però, ben altro, non si tratta di una spiegazione dello sviluppo religioso nell'impero romano

[DAJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The early centuries AD saw a dramatic change in the nature of religion in the civilized regions of Eurasia, especially the Mediterranean and Middle East. It wasn't the replacement of polytheistic religions with Christianity, as the misleading title of this book would suggest. Christianity was just the most visible example of the shift in thinking. It was really a process of convergent evolution among different groups, spurred by the rise of multicultural empires and the resulting cultural interaction. Many of the elements we think of as fundamental, or at least common, traits of a religion—a fixed set of fundamental beliefs, a religion-based system of ethics, a canon of sacred texts, and a presence across multiple cultures—were invented or became much more important in this period. In the Roman Empire, many polytheistic traditions started developing in this direction, even if they didn't go as far down that road as Christianity, Judaism, or Zoroastrianism.

This fundamental shift doesn't seem to have been discussed much until fairly recently, because Christianization tends to overshadow the wider development. Rüpke aims to describe how religion in the Roman Empire was changing, focusing particularly on the polytheistic cults. The problem is that, aside from short sections like the introduction or the opening of Part Three, the book doesn't address the overall topic very directly. Instead, it jumps around from subtopic to subtopic without connecting them very clearly. A chapter will use a very specific example, like the Lex Ursonensis, the Shepherd of Hermas, or the role of the Pontifex Maximus, to illustrate its particular subtopic, and spends most of the chapter analyzing the example. The broader conclusions to be drawn from the example often appear only briefly at the end of the chapter. Those conclusions are often insightful, but they feel underdeveloped.

I hope there will soon be a cohesive analysis of the way religion changed in the Roman Empire. This book doesn't pull the disparate trends and pieces of evidence together well enough to fill the gap. Instead it feels rather like a precursor to a broader treatment of the topic. The scholarly audience that the book is clearly aimed at will probably find it useful enough for that purpose, but for me it's a disappointment.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

How long till people understand jupiter is christ and christ is a copy of jupiter that they fucked up into saturn. fuck them opp ass niggas