The Meaning of Salvation in a Greco-Roman Milieu

This chapter begins Section II of the book, which sets soteriological universalism in the historical, social, political, economic, and religious and philosophical context of the Third Century Crisis. By analyzing a plethora of epigraphic data to show the reader the nuances of the views on salvation in the Greco-Roman world of Porphyry’s period, religious and philosophical paganism is soteriologically categorized into four main groups: Salvation from the world, in the world, for the world, and beyond the world, thus laying a foundation for the following chapters, which place pagan and Christian notions of soteriology in their broader historical and cultural contexts, and also showing how they contributed to Porphyry’s tripartite system.

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Meaning (existential) · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Philosophy