· 2016
Imagine No Religion: How Modern Abstractions Hide Ancient Realities
- 271citations
- 2016year
Short summary
This paper argues that the modern concept of 'religion' anachronistically misrepresents ancient Roman and Greek societies by forcing their diverse practices into a single, contemporary category.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- The modern term 'religion' is an anachronistic concept when applied to ancient Roman and Greek societies.
- Latin 'religio' and Greek 'thrēskeia' encompass a broader range of meanings than the modern term 'religion' suggests.
- Applying contemporary categories obscures the specific cultural practices and nuances of ancient societies.
- The paper analyzes texts from various ancient authors, including Plautus, Tertullian, Herodotus, and Josephus.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
What do we fail to see when we force other, earlier cultures into the Procrustean bed of concepts that organize our contemporary world? In Imagine No Religion, Carlin A. Barton and Daniel Boyarin map the myriad meanings of the Latin and Greek words religio and thrēskeia, frequently and reductively mistranslated as "religion," in order to explore the manifold nuances of their uses within ancient Roman and Greek societies. In doing so, they reveal how we can conceptualize anew and speak of these cultures without invoking the anachronistic concept of religion. From Plautus to Tertullian, Herodotus to Josephus, Imagine No Religion illuminates cultural complexities otherwise obscured by our modern-day categories
The authors' abstract, as published at the source., 2016 · DOI ↗
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Field: Religious studies
Religious studiesArts and Humanities