Religious Violence in the Ancient World. From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity (original) (raw)

Religious Violence in Late Antiquity: Current Approaches, Trends and Issues

In: Jitse Dijkstra and Christian Raschle, eds, Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, 251-265.

One of the few points on which the multitude of debates that have occurred across the disciplines in recent years agree is that, whether addressing the late ancient past or the global present, the phenomenon we label religious violence is far from simple. The paper outlines some of the current debates and trends with regard to the world of Late Antiquity and introduces a variety of challenges posed by them. A key question these pose is not just whether there is a causal relationship between religion and violence, but whether in trying to unpack religious violence as a perceived phenomenon we are asking the wrong question about, among other things, the relationship between narratives of violence (which in Late Antiquity were prolific) and actual violent action.

Religious Violence and Hagiography in Late Antiquity

Sanctity is in many ways a social construct, and hence the profile of saints and the practices that qualify them as such change with the passing of time. The destruction of temples and idols as a way to signal sanctity is a good example of this. The subject came to form part of hagiography in the late fourth century, reached its peak in the Theodosian period, and fell off in the sixth century when Christianization was believed to be complete. Hagiography made iconoclasm one of the most extraordinary expressions of divine power, adding it to the saint's repertoire of miracles and ascetic virtues. The aim of this article is to study the origins and early development of this motif, which legiti-mated — and subtly encouraged — the use of violence in the conversion process. It is within apologetic and polemical contexts that the episodes of the violent destruction of late antique paganism have to be assessed. Keywords religious violence – iconoclasm – hagiography – Late Antiquity In antiquity, both pagans and Christians believed in the capacity of daimones to foresee the future, but they did not agree on which ones truly possessed this ability. In De divinatione daemonum (On the Divination of Demons), written at

Religious Violence and its Roots: a view from antiquity

my paper discusses the views of Jan Assmann on the connection between monotheism and religious violence. By looking beyond the Mediterranean, I demonstrate that polytheism is no less violent than monotheism, and that we should look at each case of religious violence in its context..

DEFINING LATE ANTIQUITY THROUGH RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE

Late Antiquity has traditionally been treated as a Roman phenomenon that represents the transitional period between Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Late Antiquity’s definitive features remain debated and undefined, and this paper aims to show that the period can be defined as an era in which the implementation of state-supported religious hierarchy and violence became increasingly prominent. By using the aforementioned parameters, one can reasonably conceive that both the Roman and Iranian worlds experienced Late-Antique transitions.

Religious Violence in Late Antique Egypt Reconsidered: The Cases of Alexandria, Panopolis and Philae

The period of Late Antiquity has long been perceived, and is still often perceived, through the lens of (Christian) literary works, which tell dramatic stories of violence against temples, statues and even ‘pagans’, and may give theimpression that this was a period of widespread religious violence. Egypt, where such stories abound, has often been seen as a particularly good illustration of the pervasive nature of religious violence in the Late Antique world. This article takes a different view. By adopting a theoretical framework on religious violence from Religious Studies and including all the other sources available from Egypt – papyri, inscriptions and archaeological remains – it argues that events were often dramatised for ideological reasons and that, when seen against a general background of religious transformation, religious violence occurred only occasionally in specific local or regional circumstances. This point will be demonstrated by discussing three iconic events that have often been adduced as symptomatic of widespread violence in Late Antique Egypt: the destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria in 391/392, the anti-‘pagan’ crusade of Abbot Shenoute in the region of Panopolis around 400, and the closure of the Isis temple at Philae in 535–537.

Violence, Religion and Politics: The Late Republic and Augustan Age

2018

Religion in the Late Republic was fused to politics. This study considers the relationship between violence, religion, and politics in the Late Republic and Augustan Age. It contends that Roman religion could encourage or discourage violence based upon the circumstances. The strain of Roman expansion on its political and religious institutions contributed to the civil discord that characterized the Late Republic, which created circumstances that were flexible enough for perspectives on each side to see the violence as justified. The ambition of a tribune, a sacrosanct office, could lead to circumvention of the traditional practices of the Senate, causing a religious dilemma if violence was used as a response. Powerful politicians also used religion to legitimize their abuses or obstruct the political aims of their opponents, leading to a contentious atmosphere fraught with violence. The influence of Greek philosophy on religion and morality was of concern for many Romans themselves. These concerns were not laid to rest until the Augustan Age had reshaped Rome's political and religious institutions, which was accompanied by an outpouring of literature embedded with religious symbolism. iv