HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor)

Responsible Department: History

Semester: 1st Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Matthias Schmidt

Coordinator Email: matthias.schmidt@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Tuesdays 15:00-16:30

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Matthias Schmidt

Course/Module description:
Freedom of worship and religion constitutes today an individual freedom right and as such one of the four fundamental basic civil liberties. Religious believe and worship are considered today private matters and freedom of worship has become a core value of western, liberal, democratic societies where state and religion are ideally separated. “The public/private distinction is fundamental to modern theories of family, religion and religious freedom, and state power, yet it has … been understood differently, from place to place and time to time” (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110367034/html?lang&eq;en). While the political system of ancient republican Rome is often described as a precedent and inspiration for modern democratic societies, the political and religious spheres in Rome - as everywhere else in the ancient world - were not separated, but closely interconnected. Roman citizens performed religious actions simultaneouly on a regular basis in different contexts: in public as citizens, in private as members of their family, as members of religious associations or as individuals on their own. All these religious activities were performed in a continuum. Here it becomes clear that the public/private distinction so fundamental to modern theories of family, religion and religious freedom, state and power has been understood differently in antiquity. On the one hand - Aristocratic politicians and senators and later the emperors functioned as religious personnel in numerous multiple tasks in the “official” Roman civic religion which was central to political and cultural life in Rome and highly important for a Roman collective and individual identity. Roman Religion was part of warfare and imperialistic rule, social and political power struggles as well as senatorial and legal decisions. Religious motifs and rituals were essential for culture in all its aspects and dominated the public life throughout the year. Furthermore, the official civic religious system and its laws and rituals served as additional control mechanisms of political decision making and as justifications - or negations - for actions on the political and social level. On the other hand - Roman citizens were religiously active beyond the context of the civic religion and performed openly religious acts and rituals in their private lives in a variety of alternative religious groups often of foreign origin. These comprehensive religious activities on a private level took place in a sphere which was beyond the official civic religion and in principle not interfered with by the Roman authorities. The widespread private individual and collective forms of worship by Roman citizens - as well as the religious activities of non-Roman citizens in Rome or the provinces of the Empire - were not limited or restricted by Roman authorities as long as the public order and welfare or the economy were not disturbed or endangered. With other words: private Roman cult groups of Roman citizens or provincials were usually tolerated by the state. Persecutions, limitations and prohibitions were rare phenomena. - Through reading, interpretation and discussion of relevant ancient sources and resesarch literature the seminar will describe the religious life in ancient Rome and its provinces. It will deconstruct the popular image of an hostile attitude of Roman authorities towards private cult groups or other non-Roman religions and will show that large scale persecutions of religious groups or foreign religions were very exceptional and usually caused by reasons other than religious concerns. The differentiation between official civic religion and individual worship rather resulted in a high level of tolerance for the individual freedom of worship which came to an end only when Christianity as the only legitimate religion of the Empire finally replaced the Roman civic religion. The seminar will check if modern concepts of the individual freedom of worship - which “consists of the right to practice, to manifest and to change one’s religion and where the modern democratic state is neutral towards the variety of religions, but protects the right of citizens to practice their different religious beliefs” (https://brill.com/display/title/31824) - have their roots in ancient Roman civilization in spite of the close linkage between politics and religion in antiquity.

Course/Module aims:
Students will get familiar with the wide spectrum and variety of religious phenomena and ritual practices in Rome in different contexts of the public and private spheres. They will familiarise themselves with the construction of the Roman religious system as shown in ancient historiography and understand the central role of religious activities in Roman politics. Since particular attention is given to the private exercise of religion, the relation between public norms and private life, and the division between public and private space and the place of religion therein, they will learn to differentiate between official-collective and individual-private levels of religious practices and be able to compare between the social functions of different sections of religious rituals. They will get insights into the use of religious rituals as control instruments for political decisions and will recognise the interrelation between foreign policy, Roman imperialism and the rise of new religious forms and cults. They will investigate the relations of the Roman authorities towards local religious groups in Rome, Italy and the Provinces and understand the reasons for differentiated views of the state towards them. The will learn how to deconstruct the popular image of the attitude of Roman authorities towards religious alternatives and will see that individual and private worship was not limitate by Roman authorities as long as the public order and economy was not disturbed. They will learn how to use a variety of primary sources (texts, inscriptions, coins, icons, archaeological material) to reconstruct and interpret religious life and traditions in the Roman Republic and their interrelation with the the political system and decision making. Through the outlook towards the imperial times the development of the ruler cult will be analysed as an instrument to integrate political authority into the administrative system of different cities and the imperial administration outside Rome in continuity with republican traditions. They will discuss the value of Roman ideas of religious tolerance with regard to the formulation of modern concepts of freedom of worhsip in the context of individualism and collectivism, realizing that these ideas were already challenged in antiquity by “hierarchy, power and subordination” (Dinah Shelton (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of International Human Rights Law, Oxford 2013, 3). Students will get acquainted with a hierarchic society closely regulated by moral codes through social disapproval and legal sanctions, and it will understand that the handling of the individual freedom of worship in different contexts was more often based on security or exconomic considerations than on religious motives.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Recognize the diversity of religious life in Rome, Italy and the Empire;
Understand multiple concepts of individual and collective rights in ancient Rome;
Appreciate the ethical and ideological components of Roman Religion;
Describe the different forms and levels of religious practice and activities and their consequences and meaning for political decision making;
Recognize the political function of religious activities;
Describe the structural elements of Roman and other religions in different social, legal and geographical contexts of the Roman world;
Understand the mechanisms of religious rituals as control instruments for political decisions;
Distinguish between the forms of civic religion as instruments of political supervision on one hand and forms of individual religious practice in its social function on the other;
Identify and recognise the development and adaptation of different cult groups simultaneously to the official civic religion and their socio-political function;
Compare the phenomena of cult rituals of different religious associations and demographic sections;
Validate the changes in religious life brought about by the establishment of the Principate;
Understand the ruler cult and its rituals as administrative means of city government in the Eastern provinces;
Evaluate the meaning and importance of Roman freedom of worhsip as antecedent for modern concepts of personal freedom and human rights law;
Be able to use different source material (texts, archaeology, coins, inscriptions, iconography) for the reconstruction of the relation between government and religious rituals in and beyond Rome;
Synthesize material from lectures and recommended primary sources and secondary literature to use in oral and written discussion of set topics.

Attendance requirements(%):
100

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Reading, analysis and interpretation of literary and visual primary sourches and secondary literature; presentation and discussion of research literature; preliminary readings for each session will be circulated and must be prepared in advance. In the seminar, lectures, power point presentations, class room discussions, group work and student presentations will alternate.

Course/Module Content:
1. Introduction
1.1 Conceptional Elements, Definitions, Approaches, Questions
1.2. The Religious History of the Roman Empire
1.3 Simultaneity and Fluidity of Religious Activities in Public and Private Spaces

2. Roman Religion - Topics, Structure, Rituals and Politics
2.1 The Place of Religion - Religious Topography and Cult Sites in Rome
2.2 Characteristic Features of Roman Civic Religion - Law, Divination, Festivals and Complex Rituals
2.3 The Framing of Religious Law: Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Legibus II 7f.
2.4 Imperator Caesar Augustus - The Restructuring of the Religious and Political Systems by Gaius Octavius
2.5 Personal Religious Praxis in Rome - Augustus in Private: Suetonius, Divus Augustus 90-97
2.6 Private Rituals in the Roman Households

3. Politics and Religion - Selected Historical Case Studies
3.1 The Introduction of the Cult of Magna Mater (Cybele) in Republican Rome in 204 BCE
3.2 The Cult of Bacchus - A political and Social Scandal in 186 BCE
3.3 The Case of Cicero’s House on the Palatine in 57 BCE
3.4 Apollo Palatinus vs Egyptian Cults - Augustus and the Boundaries of Romanness in 28 BCE

4. Rome outside Rome
4.1 Exporting Roman Religion to the Empire
4.2 Religion as Public Administration: Lex Ursonensis (64-72; 125-128)
4.3 The Ruler Cult - Religious Legitimation of Political Power

4. Institutionalized Religious Options, Private Cult Associations and Threats for Law and Order
4.1 Christians between Criminal Law and Persecutions
4.2 The Mysteries of Mithras as an exclusively Male Association
4.3 The Egyptian Goddess Isis conquering the World
4.4 Magic and Superstition - Threats to the Roman Order and Security

5. Conclusion: The Roman Model as an antecedent of modern concepts for Freedom of Worship and Religion?

Required Reading:
The following list includes basically research publications and case studies on different subjects of Roman religion. These items will serve as a basis for discussion of the different topics during the seminar and are considered as a pool of “required reading” in the a broad sense. The actual “reading” required for the meetings scheduled throughout the seminar will be determined in relation to the specific topics of the course contents and will be posted in due course in the different topics of the moodle.page in chronological order according to the speed of our work capacity in the seminar.

1. Specific Topics - Roman Religion
Clifford Ando, “Exporting Roman Religion”, in: Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, pp. 429-445.

Clifford Ando, Jörg Rüpke, “Introduction”, in: Clifford Ando, Jörg Rüpke (eds.), Public and Private in Ancient Mediterranean Law., Berlin Munich Boston: deGruyter, 2015, pp. 1-9.

Richard A. Baumann, “The Suppression of the Bacchanals: Five Questions”, in: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 39.3 (1990), pp. 334-348.

Mary Beard, “A City full of Gods”, in: idem, Pompeii. The Life of a Roman Town, London: Profile Books, 2008, pp. 276-308.

Mary Beard, “The Roman and the Foreign: The Cult of the ‘Great Mother’ in Imperial Rome”, in: Nicholas Thomas, Caroline Humphrey (eds.), Shamanis, History and the State, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1996, pp. 164-190.

Elisabeth Begemann, “Ista tua pulchra libertas: The Construction of a Private Cult of Liberty on the Palatine”, in: Clifford Ando, Jörg Rüpke (eds.), Public and Private in Ancient Mediterranean Law., Berlin Munich Boston: deGruyter, 2015, pp. 75-98.

Nicole Belayche, “Religious Actors in Daily Life: Practices and Related Beliefs”, in: Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, pp. 275-291.

Andreas Bendlin, “Religion at Rome”, in: Matt Gibbs, Milorad Nikolic, Pauline Ripat (eds.), Themes in Roman Society and Culture: an introduction to ancient Rome, Oxford, 2014, pp. 189-216.

Frank Bernstein, “Complex Rituals: Games and Processions in Republican Rome”, in: Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, pp. 222-234.

Per Bilde, “The Meaning of Roman Mithraism”, in: Jørgen Podemann Sørensen (ed.), Rethinking Religion: Studies in the Hellenistic Process, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1989, pp. 31-47.

Paul J. Burton, “The Summoning of the Magna Mater to Rome (205 B.C.)”, in: Historia. Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 45.1 (1996), pp. 36-63.

Aleš Chalupa, “How Did Roman Emperors Become Gods? Various Concepts of Imperial Apotheosis”, in: Anodos. Studies of the Ancient World 6-7/2006-2007, pp. 201-207.

John Ferguson, “Ruler Worship”, in: John Wacker (ed.), The Roman World, London - New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987, Vol. II, Chap. 32, pp. 766-784.

Richard Gordon, “Institutionalized Religious Options: Mithraism”, in: Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, pp. 392-405.

Erich S. Gruen, “The Advent of the Magna Mater”, in: idem, Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy, Leiden: Brill, 1990, pp. 5-33.

Erich S. Gruen, “The Bacchanalian Affair”, in: idem, Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy, Leiden: Brill, 1990, pp. 34-78.

Erich S. Gruen, “Religious Pluralism in the Roman Empire. Did Judaism Test the Limits of Roman Tolerance?”, in: Jonathan J. Price, Margalit Finkelberg, Yuval Shahar (eds.), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations. New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp. 169-185.

Olivier Hekster, John Rich, “Octavian and the Thunderbolt: The Temple of Apollo Palatinus and Roman Traditions of Temple Building”, in: Classical Quarterly 56.1 (2006), pp. 149-168.

Marietta Horster, “Living on Religion: Professionals and Personnel”, in: Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, pp. 331-342.

Annemarie Kaufmann-Heinimann, “Religion in the House”, in: Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, pp. 188-201.

Sarah Limoges, “Expansionism or Fear: The Underlying Reasons for the Bacchanalia Affair of 186 B.C.”, in: Classical Studies 7 (2008), pp. 77-94.

Fernando Lozano, “Emperor Worship and Greek Leagues: The Organization of Supra-Civic Imperial Cult in the Roman East”, in: Elena Muñiz Grijalvo, Juan Manuel Cortés Copete, Fernandno Lozano Gómez (eds.), Empire and Religion Religious Change in Greek Cities under Roman Rule, Leiden Boston: Brill, 2017, pp 149-176.

Horst R. Moehring, “The Persecution of the Jews and the Adherents of the Isis Cult at Rome A.D. 19”, in: Novum Testamentum 4.3 (1959), pp. 293-304.

Britt-Mari Nässström, “The Baccahnalia. Development and Suppression”, in: Göran Aijmer (ed.), A Conciliation of Powers, Göteborg: Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology at the University of Gothenburg, 1992, pp. 110-118.

Aleksandra Nikoloska, “The Sea Voyage of Magna Mater to Rome”, in: Histria Antiqua 21 (2012), pp. 365-371.

Carlos F. Noreña, “The Social Economy of Pliny’s Correspondence with Trajan”, in: The American Journal of Philology 128.2 (Summer 2007), pp. 239-277,

John North, “Diviners and Divination at Rome”, in: Mary Beard, John North (eds.), Pagan Priests. Religion and Power in the Ancient World, Ithaca New York: Cornelll University Press, 1990, pp. 49-71.

John North, “The Religious History of the Roman Empire”, in: Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Religion, published online: 19 December 2017 (https://oxfordre.com/religion/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-114 ).

John North, “Religious Toleration in Republican Rome”, in: Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society. New Series 25 (205) (1979), pp. 85-103.

Eric Orlin, “Foreign Cults in Republican Rome: Rethinking the Pomerial Rule”, in:Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome Vol 47 (2002), pp. 1-18.

Eric Orlin, “Octavian and Egyptian Cults: Redrawing the Boundaries of Romanness”, in: American Journal of Philogogy 129 (2008).

Eric Orlin, Art. “Religion: Public Religion, Roman Period”, in: Daniel M. Master (ed.), Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology, London: Oxford University Press, 2013.

J.R. Patterson, “Survey Article. The City of Rome: from Republic to Empire” in: Journal of Roman Studies 82 (1992), pp. 186-215.
Rafaele Pettazoni, “State Religion and Individual Religion in the Religious History of Italy”, in: Raffaele Pettazzoni, in: idem, Essays on the History of Religion (Numen Book Series vol 1), Leiden: Brill, 1967, pp. 202-214.
Francisco Pina Polo, “Consuls and civic religion”, in: idem, The Consul at Rome. The Civil Functions of the Consuls in the Roman Republic, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 21-57.

J. Pollini, “Man or God: Divine Assimilation and Imitation in the Late Republic and Early Principate”, in: Kurt A. Raaflaub, Mark Toher (eds), Between Republic and Empire. Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate, Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford: University of California Press, 1990, pp. 334-357.

Beatrice Poletti, “‘Foreign’ Cults at Rome at the Turn of the Principate”, in: Acta Antiqua Academieae Scientiarum Hungaricae (Acta Ant. Hung) 58 (2018), pp. 549-569.

Simon R. F. Price, "The Place of Religion: Rome in the Early Empire", in: The Cambridge Ancient History (Second Edition), Volume X: The Augustan Empire, 43 B.C. - A. D. 69 (ed. by Alan K. Bowman, Edward Champlin, Andrew Lintott), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 812-847.

Éric Rebillard, Jörg Rüpke (eds.), Group Identity and Religious Individuality in Late Antiquity. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2015.

Jörg Rüpke, “Individual Appropriation of Religion”, in: idem., On Roman Religion. Lived Religion and the Individual in Ancient Rome (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology. Townsend lectures, Ithaca London: Cornell University Press, 2016, pp. 8-25.

Jörg Rüpke, “Individual Decision and Social Order”, in: idem., On Roman Religion. Lived Religion and the Individual in Ancient Rome (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology. Townsend lectures, Ithaca London: Cornell University Press, 2016, pp. 26-41.

Jörg Rüpke, “Priests”, in: Valentina Arena, Jonathan Prag (eds.), A Companion to the Political Culture of the Roman Republic, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2022, pp. 274-284.

Jörg Rüpke, “Religion in the lex Ursonensis”, in: idem., From Jupiter to Christ: On the History of Religion in the Roman Imperial Period, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 113-136 (also in: Clifford Ando, Jörg Rüpke (eds.), Religion and Law in Classical and Christian Rome, Stuttgart: Steiner, 2006, pp. 34-46).

Jörg Rüpke, “Roman Religion”, in: Harriet I Flower (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, chap. 8, pp. 179-196.

Jörg Rüpke, “Superstitio: conceptions of religious deviance in Roman antiquity”, in: idem, Religious Deviance in the Roman World. Superstition or Individuality?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, chap. 1 - pp. 1-11.

Jörg Rüpke, “De superstitione: religious experiences best not had in temples”, in: idem, Religious Deviance in the Roman World. Superstition or Individuality?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, chap. 4 - pp. 45-64.

Jörg Rüpke, “The individual in a world of competing religious norms”, in: idem, Religious Deviance in the Roman World. Superstition or Individuality?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, chap. 6 - pp. 91-102.

Susan Satterfield, “Intention and Exoticism in Magna Mater’s Introduction into Rome”, in: Latomus 72.2 (2012, pp. 373-391.

John Scheid, “Augustus and Roman Religion: Continuity, Conservatism, and Innovation”, in: Karl Galinsky (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to The Age of Augustus, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 175-193.

John Scheid, “Roman Theologies in the Roman Cities of Italy and the Provinces”, in: Jonathan J. Price, Margalit Finkelberg, Yuval Shahar (eds.), Rome: An Empoire of Many Nations. New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp. 116-134.

Francisco Marco Simón, “Religion and Rituals in Republican Rome”, in: Valentina Arena, Jonathan Prag (eds.), A Companion to the Political Culture of the Roman Republic, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2022, pp. 455-469.

Sarolta A. Takács, “Politics and Religion in the Bacchanalian Affair of 186 BCE,” in: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 100 (2000), pp. 301-310.

Caroline Tully, The Reception of the Cult of Isis in Rome from the Late Republic to the Flavian Dynasty (2008).

William Van Andringa, “‘M. Tullius … aedem Fortunae August(ae) solo et peg(unia) sua’ Private Foundation and Public Cult in a Roman Colony”, in: Clifford Ando, Jörg Rüpke (eds.), Public and Private in Ancient Mediterranean Law, Berlin Munich Boston: deGruyter, 2015, pp. 99-114.

William Van Andringa, “Religions and the Integration of Cities in the Empire in the Second Century AD: The Creation of a Common Religious Language”, in: Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, pp. 83-95.

Peter G. Walsh, “Making a Drama out of a Crisis: Livy on the Bacchanalia”, in: Greece & Rome 43.2 (1996), pp. 188-203.

M.J. Versluys, “Isis Capitolina and the Egyptian Cults in Late Republican Rome”, in: Laurent Bricault (ed.), Isis en Occident. Actes du IIème Colloque international sur les études isiaques, Lyon III 16-17 mai 2002, Leiden Boston: Brill, 2004, pp. 421-448.

Additional Reading Material:
Additional Reading Material
The titles in the following list are considered additional reading beyond the specific publications of “required reading”. The list includes: (a) general introductions and compendia into Roman religion and its history recommended for reading to get a more comprehensive understanding of the matter; (b) introductions into general Roman history and politics as background information as well as more general publications and monographs on certain aspects of our subject; (c) general items on freedom of religion in modern times. Certain sections/chapters/articles of the mentioned publications/compendia are as well on the list of the required reading and - as obligatory reading - will be posted on the moodle.page.

1. General Introductions/Compendia/Articles or Anthologies on Roman History and Religion
Clifford Ando, Jörg Rüpke (eds.), Public and Private in Ancient Mediterranean Law., Berlin Munich Boston: deGruyter, 2015.

Mary Beard, SPQR. A History of Ancient Rome, London: Profile Books, 2015.

Mary Beard, John North (eds.), Pagan Priests. Religion and Power in the Ancient World, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990.

Mary Beard, John North, Simon Price (eds.), Religions of Rome, Vol. I: A History; Vol. II: A Sourcebook, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Allen Brent, A Political History of Early Christianity, London New York: T&T Clark International, 2009.

Ken Dowden, Religion and the Romans, Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1992.

Walter Eder, “Augustus and the Power of Tradition: The Augustan Principate as Binding Link between Republic and Empire”, in: Kurt A. Raaflaub, Mark Toher (eds), Between Republic and Empire. Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate, Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford: University of California Press, 1990, 71-122.

Denis Feeney, “The History of Roman Religion in Roman Historiography”, in: Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, 129-142.

John Ferguson, The Religions of the Roman Empire, London: Thames and Hudson, 1970 (reprinted 1982).

Karl Galinsky, “Continuity and Change: Religion in the Augustan Semi-Century”, in: Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, 71-82.

Peter Jones, Keith Sidwell, The World of Rome. An Introduction to Roman Culture, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997.

Andrew Lintott, The Constitution of the Roman Republic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999.

Dwayne Meisner, Livy and the Bacchanalia, MA Thesis, published online:
https://www.academia.edu/3676241/Livy_and_the_Bacchanalia?email_work_card&eq;view-paper

Robert M. Ogilvie, The Romans and their Gods in the Age of Augustus, London: Chatto and Windus Ltd., 1969.

Eric Orlin, “Urban Religion in the Middle and Late Republic”, in: Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, 58-70.

Jonathan J. Price, Margalit Finkelberg, Yuval Shahar (eds.), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations. New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Simon R. F. Price, Rituals and Power. The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

James R. Rives, Religion in the Roman Empire, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2013.

Nathan Rosenstein, Robert Morstein-Marx, A Companion to the Roman Republic, Blackwell Publishing: Oxford, 2006 (selected articles).

Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2007 (selected articles).

Jörg Rüpke, On Roman Religion. Lived Religion and the Individual in Ancient Rome (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology. Townsend lectures, Ithaca London: Cornell University Press, 2016 (selected chapters).

Jörg Rüpke, Religion in Republican Rome: Rationalization and Ritual Change, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012 (selected chapters).

Jörg Rüpke, Religious Deviance in the Roman World. Superstition or Individuality?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

John Scheid, The Gods, the State, and the Individual. Reflections on Civic Religion in Rome, translated and with a foreword by Clifford Ando, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.

Alexandra Sofroniew, Household Gods. Private Devotion in Ancient Greece and Rome, Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2015.

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, “Mutatio morum: the idea of a cultural revolution”, in: Thomas Habinek, Alessandro Schiesaro (eds.), The Roman Cultural Revolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 3-22.

2. On Freedom of Religion (modern)
Tawia Ansah, “A Terrible Purity: International Law, Morality, Religion, Exclusion”, in: Cornell International Law Journal 38.1 (2005), Article 2, pp. 9-63.

Mashood Baderin, “Religion and International Law: Friends or Foes?”. in: SSRN Electronic Journal January 2010 (online> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44208465 ).

Heiner Bielefeldt, Thiago Alves Pinto & Marie Juul Petersen, “Introduction: Freedom of Religion or Belief as a Human Right”, in: The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 20:2 (2022), pp. 1-12, DOI: 10.1080/15570274.2022.2065799 (online> https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2022.2065799).

John Bagnall Bury, A History of Freedom of Thought, Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2002 (reprint of the 1913 edition by Henry Holt and Company, The University Press).

Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan, Carla M. Zoethout (eds.), Freedom of Religion and Religious Pluralism, Leiden Boston: Brill/Nijhoff, 2023.

Nehal Bhuta (ed.), Freedom of Religion, Secularism, and Human Rights, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

T. Jeremy Gunn, “The Complexity of Religion and the Definition of ‘Religion’ in International Law”, in: Harvard Human Rights Journal 16 (2013), pp. 189-215.

Mark Weston Janis, David Kennedy, Mahnoush H. Arsanjani, Alberto R. Coll, Nicholas Grief , “Religion and International Law”, in: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (American Society of International Law) , APRIL 20-23, 1988, Vol. 82 (APRIL 20-23, 1988), pp. 195-220 .

Celia G. Kenny, “Law and the Art of Defining Religion”, in: Ecc. LJ 16 (2014), pp. 18-31.

Hans-Georg Zieberts, Ernst Hirsch Ballin (eds.), Freedom of Religion in the 21st Century: a human rights perspective on the relation between politics and religion, Leiden Boston: Brill, 2016.

Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Home Exam / Referat 90 %
Active Participation / Team Assignment 5 %
Attendance / Participation in Field Excursion 5 %

Additional information:
In this seminar classical literature and sources are studied in English or Hebrew translations. Knowledge of Greek and Latin is not required.