From Jupiter to Christ : on the history of religion in the Roman imperial period / Jörg Rüpke.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Emerging from a decade of research, 'From Jupiter to Christ' demonstrates that the decisive change within the Roman imperial period was not a growing number of religions or changes in their ranking and success, but a modification of the idea of 'religion' and a change in the social place of religious practices and beliefs.

Introduction : The history of religion in the Mediterranean, and the problem of imperial religion -- Part I: Globalization in a traditional form. 'Globalization' as a model for individual religious creativity in the Roman imperial age -- Integration and transformation of an immigrant religion : observations on the inscriptions of the Jupiter Dolichenus cult in Rome -- A Judaeo-Christian variant of professional religion in Rome : The Shepherd of Hermas -- Organizational patterns in respect of religious specialists in a range of Roman cults -- Part II: Media and vectors of the spread of religion in the Roman empire. The rise of provincial religion -- Religion in the lex Ursonensis -- The export of calendars and festivals in the Roman empire -- Book religions as imperial religions? : The local limits of supraregional religious communication -- Part III: The Roman world changes : religious change on a global scale. Polytheism and pluralism : observations on religious competition in the Roman imperial age -- Religious pluralism and the Roman empire -- Representations of Roman religion in Christian apologetic texts -- Religious centralization : traditional priesthoods and the role of the Pontifex Maximus in the late imperial age -- Visual worlds and religious boundaries -- How does an empire change religion, and how religion an empire? : Conclusion and perspectives regarding the question of 'imperial and provincial religion'.

Translated, expanded and revised version of the German text "Von Jupiter zu Christus : Religionsgeschichte in römischer Zeit" published by Wissenschaftliche Buchgellschaft, 2011.

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