Jörg Rüpke

Jörg Rüpke ist Fellow für Religionswissenschaft am Max-Weber-Kolleg der Universität Erfurt und Mit-Leiter der dort angesiedelten Kollegforschergruppe 1013 der DFG »Religiöse Individualisierung in historischer Perspektive« sowie Sprecher der Graduiertenschule »Religion in Modernisierungsprozessen« der Universität Erfurt. Seine Arbeitsschwerpunkte liegen in der antiken Religionsgeschichte sowie religionswissenschaftlichen Methodologie. Jörg Rüpke arbeitet insbesondere über religiöse Wahlmöglich..

Jörg Rüpke

Jörg Rüpke ist Fellow für Religionswissenschaft am Max-Weber-Kolleg der Universität Erfurt und Mit-Leiter der dort angesiedelten Kollegforschergruppe 1013 der DFG »Religiöse Individualisierung in historischer Perspektive« sowie Sprecher der Graduiertenschule »Religion in Modernisierungsprozessen« der Universität Erfurt. Seine Arbeitsschwerpunkte liegen in der antiken Religionsgeschichte sowie religionswissenschaftlichen Methodologie. Jörg Rüpke arbeitet insbesondere über religiöse Wahlmöglich..

Toward a Mutual Change of Religion and Urban Space: A Comparative Perspective

From a historical perspective, cities have served as more than mere locations where religious practices are observed; they have consistently exhibited an elevated level of historical documentation. The claim advanced here is that the interrelationship between religious change and urban development necessitates thorough analysis. It is imperative to critically examine the significant developments in local and trans-local religions, particularly emphasising their distinct urban contextual factors. At the same time, such urban conditions, the practices, and discourse that shape the understanding of these conditions as urban are not independent variables in the study of religious change. Rather, they are influenced by religious practices and individuals, thereby forming a reciprocal relationship. The choice of areas is an assumption that the pertinent aspect in establishing a connection is the spatial character of religious practices and ideas and their material manifestation in physical space. The article concisely examines various aspects related to the transformation of urban spaces and religious practices. These include the process of monumentalising urban areas and gods, the public display and the articulation of communication with God and gods, the imaginative and widespread utilisation of scripture in religious activities and thought, the increasing division of labour and professionalisation, the emergence of individual urban actors who are not solely defined by their ancestral lineage, the formation of religious groups, the religious organisation of time and the influence of temporal concepts on religious ideas and practices, and lastly, the conceptualisation of alternatives to urban life through the religious exaggeration of rural and natural environments. Such a cursory review of religious changes in urban settings and their impact on urbanism does not yield any definitive assertions on these developments. However, the collective evidence confirms the effectiveness of the presented approach

Menschen reisen zu den Göttern, Götter reisen zu den Menschen: Religio migrans in Abonuteichos und am Schwarzen Meer

Three forms of religio migrans (religion on the move) are addressed in this paper: 1. When people migrate to far-off lands, they take their gods with them (‘Gods join migrant people on their journey’). 2. In their new abodes migrant people will confer an allotted place to their gods to dwell together with them; both will integrate into the neighborhood (religio translata). 3. People travel to the gods. Of the three, the third is treated most in-depth. As a point of departure the essay begins with the founding of a new cult in the Roman Empire on the southern coast of the Black Sea: the cult of the New Asklepios Glykon. Taking the narrative of Lucian as part of a persecution speech, it can be seen as a historical source that fits well in the religious history of the mid-2nd century AD. 1) illustrating the spread of the cult in the region of the southwestern coast of the Black Sea and 2) understood as a result of the cult’s attractiveness for the people from the region, who travelled to a god at the heart of a healing and oracle cult and a great festival. I continue to develop the systematic analysis of religio migrans further in respect to 3) religious tourism, pilgrimage, the attractiveness of even remote localities, language diversity, etc. within the framework of religion during the Roman Empire

Estableciendo relaciones entre el mundo y el yo en las prácticas socio-religiosas. Una mirada hacia la comunicación religiosa romana

Starting from the notion of religion as communication and resonance, this article analyses the details and varieties of religious communication in ancient Rome. Decentring the traditional focus on “sacrifice” by admitting that sacra facere was far more than “sacrifice”, allows us to use the rich evidence for the many facets, pragmatic relationships and cognitive associations of such rituals for an analysis focused on the self-world relations that were established in such performances. The article will model religious ritual as a triangular relationship between human agents (in active as well as passive roles), their “special” or “divine” addressees and animals or objects not just casually employed but constitutive for such communication. It will further argue that such religious practices have a specific relational quality which makes them particularly important for establishing relationships, foregrounding the reflexive, self-observing character of such “intensified” practices. Against this background, the body of this article follows the many conceptual and material associations and implications of Roman religious ritual, thus arguing for the individual and cultural malleability of ritual relations. It is construing a heuristic grid and on that basis plausibilizes the claim that self-world relations are established and habitualized in practices that are characterized by their inclusion of not unquestionably plausible addressees and hence more intensively mediatized and more self-reflexive than many other social practices.Partiendo de la noción de religión como comunicación y resonancia, este artículo analiza los detalles y las variedades de la comunicación religiosa en la antigua Roma. Ampliar el foco de atención tradicional en el “sacrificio” admitiendo que sacra facere era mucho más que “sacrificar” nos permite utilizar la abundante documentación que atestigua las múltiples facetas, relaciones pragmáticas y asociaciones cognitivas de los rituales para analizar las relaciones entre el mundo y el yo individual que se establecen en la ejecución de tales ceremonias. El artículo aborda el ritual religioso como una relación triangular entre los agentes humanos (tanto en papeles activos como pasivos), sus receptores “especiales” o “divinos” y los animales u objetos empleados en dicha comunicación no simplemente de manera casual, sino como elementos constitutivos de la misma. Sostiene, además, que las prácticas religiosas tienen una cualidad relacional específica que las hace particularmente importantes para establecer relaciones, poniendo en primer plano el carácter reflexivo y auto-observante de estas prácticas “intensificadas”. Con este telón de fondo, el cuerpo del estudio investiga las numerosas asociaciones e implicaciones conceptuales y materiales del ritual religioso romano, defendiendo así la maleabilidad individual y cultural de las relaciones rituales. Se construye un marco heurístico dentro del cual es posible afirmar que las relaciones entre el mundo y el yo se establecen y se vuelven habituales en prácticas que se caracterizan por incluir destinatarios no incuestionablemente plausibles y, en consecuencia, por ser más intensamente mediatizadas y más autorreflexivas que muchas otras prácticas sociales

Religiöse Individualisierung in historischer Perspektive / Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective: Abschlussbericht für die zweite Förderphase der Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe 1013 / Final Report of the Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe 1013 for the Second Funding Period (2013-2018)

This volume provides access to the working and results of six years of research on religious individualisation. It demonstrates the independence of individualisation and modernisation. It has proved that religion is a motor of individualisation. And it has proved that the wide range of phenomena under the umbrella term of 'individualisation' are to be found in many premodern societies, in India for instance as much as in Europe

Une méthodologie pour l’historiographie de la religion ancienne

Starting from a discussion about the usefulness of a historical approach to ancient religion, I propose basing the historiography of ancient religion on a set of three concepts, replacing three others that have been widely used. First, I contend that we need to shift our focus from questions of identity to questions of agency, not least in the face of earlier traditions of historiography of regions outside the imperial capitals. The application of an agentic perspective entails a further unavoidable consequence. The concept of “religions” must be replaced by that of “lived religion”, even for the past, once again shifting the focus to the local and the entire range of social agents and their cultural production. This agentic and material focus is further supplemented by a spatial one. Thus, I propose moving away from the widespread focus on civic religion in cities to embrace the perspective of urban religion. Lastly, I briefly touch upon the problem of the selection of forms of contemporary historiography of religion.Partant d’une discussion sur l’utilité d’une aproche historique de la religion ancienne, l’article propose de fonder une étude historique de la religion ancienne sur un ensemble de trois concepts, qui en remplacent trois autres qui ont été abondamment utilisés. Tout d’abord, il propose de déplacer l’accent des questions d’identité vers les questions d’agentivité, notamment face aux traditions précédentes de l’historiographie des régions situées en dehors des capitales impériales. Dans cette perspective d’agentivité, une conséquence s’impose. Le concept de «religions» doit être remplacé par celui de «religion vécue», même pour le passé, en mettant à nouveau l’accent sur le local et sur l’ensemble des agents sociaux et leur production culturelle. L’accent mis sur l’agentivité et le matériel est enfin complété par un facteur spatial. L’article propose de remplacer l’accent largement répandu sur la religion civique des villes par une perspective axée sur la «religion urbaine». Enfin, il aborde brièvement le problème de la sélection des formes d’historiographie actuelles de la religion

How do we explain the quiet demise of graeco-roman religion? An essay

Until now, the relatively quiet transition from traditional Graeco-Roman religion to Christianity has gone unexplained. In dialogue with James Rives and Jörg Rüpke, I argue that Christianity made better use than its religious competition of long-term trends in the Roman Empire, such as expanding literacy, the rejection of sacrifice, the movement toward monotheism, and the closing of the distance between gods and their faithful. The growing skepticism within the city elites regarding the credibility of its traditional religion, the decrease in investments in its material side, and the strength of the Christian organizations were additional factors together with contingent events, such as Constantine's victory and his long rule.</p

Introduction

Le dossier ici proposé est issu de rencontres scientifiques franco-italo-allemandes, avec des collaborations belges et suisses, qui ont été financées par le programme de coopération trilatérale entre la Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme (Paris), la Deutsche Forschungs­gemeinschaft et la Fondazione Villa Vigoni. Un vaste chantier a été lancé autour du thème « Les religions orientales dans le monde grec et romain » et coordonné par Corinne Bonnet, Jörg Rüpke et Paolo Scarpi. Trois réunio..

Urban Religion in Late Antiquity

Aim of the volume is the analysis of the entanglement of religious communication and city life during an arc of time that is characterised by dramatic and even contradicting developments. Bringing together textual analyses and archaelogical case studies in a comparative perspective, the volume zooms in on the historical context of the advanced imperial and late antique Mediterranean space (2nd–8th centuries CE)