Religion & power
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (GB) |
| ISBN-13 | 9780195082630 |
| Open Library | OL18332008W |
| Total publications | 8 |
| Coverage period | 1996 - 1996 |
| Language | EN |
| Cited by | 12 |
| h-index | 1 |
| i10-index | 1 |
This book contributes to the small but growing body of literature on the interaction between religion and power in antiquity. Douglas Edwards focuses on the eastern "Greek" provinces in the first and second centuries C.E. - the period during which Christianity, Judaism, and numerous other religions and cults exploded across the Roman Empire. His purpose is to show how the local elite classes appropriated and manipulated mythic and religious images and practices to establish and consolidate their social, political, and economic power. Edwards considers both archaeological and literary evidence. He examines coins, epigraphy, statuary, building complexes, mosaics, and paintings from across Asia Minor and Syria-Palestine looking for evidence of sponsorship by local elites and the meaning of such sponsorship. On the literary side, Edwards selects one representative figure from each of the three major religio-cultural traditions: the Greek writer, Chariton of Aphrodisias; the Jewish historian, Josephus; and the Christian evangelist, the author of Luke-Acts. He illustrates how each writer's use of religion reflects the interaction of local elite groups with the "web of power" that existed in political, cultural, and social spheres of the Roman Empire.
Cosmic Connections
Images of the divine world permeated ancient society. Connecting with the divine world was serious business and occupied persons at almost every level. Members of elite classes in the Greek East and those associated with them actively sought the continuing benevolence of a god or gods. Many appropriated symbols associated with the divine world to bolster, maintain, or redefine their relation to political, social, and economic arenas of power. The…
The Power of the Future
Symbols associated with the future occurred through media with longstanding traditions. Oracles, prophecies, votive offerings, cultic practices of the mystery cults, architecture, tombs, games, festivals, and treaties often framed images and symbols of the future that informed or expressed concerns that persons had in the present. Symbols of the future in antiquity often centered on “personal religion” or personal piety that sought salvation “thr…
The Power of the Past
How are we to interpret the role of tradition in the Greek East? Does a core of inherited cultural traits pass from generation to generation, or do persons symbolically construct the past to speak to the present? Individuals who copied Homeric themes in literature or emulated the sculptural programs of fifth-century Greek sculptors did not receive a static and clearly articulated tradition. Certainly, the artists of antiquity believed they had ap…
The Power Game
Between Augustus and Hadrian, something changed in the Greek East. A century and a half of imperial rule had altered both the nature of Roman rule and the manner in which those in the Greek East responded to it. Imperial power still revolved around the emperor, a power based on decades of precedents. Senators and equestrians from Italy continued to play important roles in the maintenance of the empire. Yet, the faces and families who ruled had ch…
Cosmic Power Brokers
The divine world played an important role in the plethora of symbolic discourses between groups and individuals throughout the Roman Empire. Such activity needed interpreters and some system within which such agents could properly broker the power of the divine for the less informed. These agents were seen by groups as possessing special connections to the divine and sometimes were viewed as divine themselves. “That is why we even worship those p…
Religion and the Symbolics of Power
Religious symbols permeated the Roman world. Visual displays and rhetorical flourishes on public and private monuments, coins and in literary texts provide ample testimony for the ways local elites in the Greek East acquired or consolidated power during imperial Roman rule. Local elites and their affiliates had at their disposal many religious symbols (the “symbolics of power”) to mediate the intersection between religion, society, and politics. …
Geography and the Sacred
Defining space plays a significant role in human society. How a people interpret their geographic surroundings illuminates how they perceive their world and their place in it. Territories (whether a site, a city, a region, or even an empire) were not neutral entities in the Graeco-Roman world. Often they were viewed as “having a relationship with the cosmos, religiously oriented and pervaded with sanctity. “
Religion & Power
This book contributes to the small but growing literature on the interaction between religion and power in antiquity. Edwards focuses on the eastern ‘Greek’ provinces in the first and second centuries A.D. - the period during which Christianity, Judaism, and numerous other religions and cults exploded across the Roman Empire. His purpose is to show how the local elite classes appropriated and manipulated mythic and religious images and practices …
Religion & Power
This book contributes to the small but growing literature on the interaction between religion and power in antiquity. Edwards focuses on the eastern ‘Greek’ provinces in the first and second centuries A.D. - the period during which Christianity, Judaism, and numerous other religions and cults exploded across the Roman Empire. His purpose is to show how the local elite classes appropriated and manipulated mythic and religious images and practices …
Cosmic Connections
Images of the divine world permeated ancient society. Connecting with the divine world was serious business and occupied persons at almost every level. Members of elite classes in the Greek East and those associated with them actively sought the continuing benevolence of a god or gods. Many appropriated symbols associated with the divine world to bolster, maintain, or redefine their relation to political, social, and economic arenas of power. The…
The Power of the Future
Symbols associated with the future occurred through media with longstanding traditions. Oracles, prophecies, votive offerings, cultic practices of the mystery cults, architecture, tombs, games, festivals, and treaties often framed images and symbols of the future that informed or expressed concerns that persons had in the present. Symbols of the future in antiquity often centered on “personal religion” or personal piety that sought salvation “thr…
The Power of the Past
How are we to interpret the role of tradition in the Greek East? Does a core of inherited cultural traits pass from generation to generation, or do persons symbolically construct the past to speak to the present? Individuals who copied Homeric themes in literature or emulated the sculptural programs of fifth-century Greek sculptors did not receive a static and clearly articulated tradition. Certainly, the artists of antiquity believed they had ap…
The Power Game
Between Augustus and Hadrian, something changed in the Greek East. A century and a half of imperial rule had altered both the nature of Roman rule and the manner in which those in the Greek East responded to it. Imperial power still revolved around the emperor, a power based on decades of precedents. Senators and equestrians from Italy continued to play important roles in the maintenance of the empire. Yet, the faces and families who ruled had ch…
Cosmic Power Brokers
The divine world played an important role in the plethora of symbolic discourses between groups and individuals throughout the Roman Empire. Such activity needed interpreters and some system within which such agents could properly broker the power of the divine for the less informed. These agents were seen by groups as possessing special connections to the divine and sometimes were viewed as divine themselves. “That is why we even worship those p…
Religion and the Symbolics of Power
Religious symbols permeated the Roman world. Visual displays and rhetorical flourishes on public and private monuments, coins and in literary texts provide ample testimony for the ways local elites in the Greek East acquired or consolidated power during imperial Roman rule. Local elites and their affiliates had at their disposal many religious symbols (the “symbolics of power”) to mediate the intersection between religion, society, and politics. …
Geography and the Sacred
Defining space plays a significant role in human society. How a people interpret their geographic surroundings illuminates how they perceive their world and their place in it. Territories (whether a site, a city, a region, or even an empire) were not neutral entities in the Graeco-Roman world. Often they were viewed as “having a relationship with the cosmos, religiously oriented and pervaded with sanctity. “
Religion & Power
This book contributes to the small but growing literature on the interaction between religion and power in antiquity. Edwards focuses on the eastern ‘Greek’ provinces in the first and second centuries A.D. - the period during which Christianity, Judaism, and numerous other religions and cults exploded across the Roman Empire. His purpose is to show how the local elite classes appropriated and manipulated mythic and religious images and practices …