The Gods, the State, and the Individual: Reflections on Civic Religion in Rome by Scheid, John

The Gods, the State, and the Individual: Reflections on Civic Religion in Rome (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780812247664)

Vendor: John Scheid
Product type: Books
Format: Hardcover
$64.95
$64.95
$64.95
Subtotal: $64.95
The Gods, the State, and the Individual: Reflections on Civic Religion in Rome by Scheid, John

The Gods, the State, and the Individual: Reflections on Civic Religion in Rome

$64.95
The Gods, the State, and the Individual: Reflections on Civic Religion in Rome by Scheid, John

The Gods, the State, and the Individual: Reflections on Civic Religion in Rome

$64.95
Format: Hardcover
Description
Description
x

Roman religion has long presented a number of challenges to historians approaching the subject from a perspective framed by the three Abrahamic religions. The Romans had no sacred text that espoused its creed or offered a portrait of its foundational myth. They described relations with the divine using technical terms widely employed to describe relations with other humans. Indeed, there was not even a word in classical Latin that corresponds to the English word religion.

In The Gods, the State, and the Individual, John Scheid confronts these and other challenges directly. If Roman religious practice has long been dismissed as a cynical or na?e system of borrowed structures unmarked by any true piety, Scheid contends that this is the result of a misplaced expectation that the basis of religion lies in an individual's personal and revelatory relationship with his or her god. He argues that when viewed in the light of secular history as opposed to Christian theology, Roman religion emerges as a legitimate phenomenon in which rituals, both public and private, enforced a sense of communal, civic, and state identity.

Since the 1970s, Scheid has been one of the most influential figures reshaping scholarly understanding of ancient Roman religion. The Gods, the State, and the Individual presents a translation of Scheid's work that chronicles the development of his field-changing scholarship.

Author: John Scheid
ISBN-10: 0812247663
ISBN-13: 9780812247664
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Language: English
Published: 12/11/2015
Pages: 200
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2016
By John Scheid
By John Scheid
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John Scheid is Professor of Religion, Institutions, and Society in Ancient Rome at the College de France and author of An Introduction to Roman Religion. Clifford Ando is the David B. and Clara E. Stern Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago and Research Fellow in the Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies at the University of South Africa. He is author of Law, Language, and Empire in the Roman Tradition, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

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