Bishops and people: looking for local religious life in Late Antiquity

The religiosity of late antique and early medieval communities in the Mediterranean world has been vigorously examined and debated. This religious life has been called (among many other terms) ‘popular Christianity,’ ‘local Christianity,’ the ‘second church,’ ‘Religion zweiter Ordnung,’ and ‘the third paganism.’ In my article, I analyse late antique religious life from the viewpoint of encounters—between the ideals of the ecclesiastical elite and the people’s local cultic practices. These practices, embedded in the local communities, varied by regions, but we can see similarities in the interaction of bishops with their local population. I will show how the ecclesiastical writers portrayed local cultic practices in negative terms as another religion (‘paganism,’ ‘idolatry,’ ‘demonic/ diabolic practices’), divergent from their own (‘Christianity’), or even as a distortion beyond ‘proper’ religion (‘magic,’ ‘superstition,’ ‘sacrilege’). In my analysis, I discuss and test various approaches that scholars have developed to understand the tensions between the bishops and the local people: David Frankfurter (local religion), Rubina Raja and Jörg Rüpke (local lived religion), and Nicola Denzey Lewis (magic as lived religion), Lisa Kaaren Bailey (lay religion) and Lucy Grig (popular culture). My focus is on the western Mediterranean world from the fourth to sixth centuries, and the cases of polemical encounters I analyse come from the writings of North Italian, Gallic and Hispanic bishops (Paulinus of Nola, Maximus of Turin, Philaster of Brescia, Caesarius of Arles, and Martin of Braga). I also compare the North Italian, Gallic and Hispanic situations with those in North Africa depicted by Augustine of Hippo.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

”Barbaariset riitit ja oudot menot.” Antiikin roomalaisten näkemyksiä kelttien uskonnosta

This article discusses the Roman conceptions of Celtic religious life. Thus, it does not take any stand on whether these ideas had any equivalency in historical reality. Instead, the Roman attitudes towards Celtic religion are analysed as a part of the Roman image of the Celts as an enemy. Furthermore, the Roman views, for example, on Druids are set within the ethnographic tradition of Graeco-Roman literature. Human sacrifice was one of the most widespread ideas connected with the Celts in Graeco-Roman literature. In the Roman discussion on civilization and barbarity, human sacrifice was always an attribute of the other and it was regarded completely un-Roman. Mainly because of its connection with the human sacrifice, Celtic religion was labelled and consequently suppressed as magic. When depicting the ferocity of the Gauls and human sacrifice of the Druids, the writers of the Roman elite underlined Roman superiority and the pre-eminent role of the Romans as the tamers of the savage barbarians and the benefactors of humankind

Bishops and People : Looking for Local Religious Life in Late Antiquity

The religiosity of late antique and early medieval communities in the Mediterranean world has been vigorously examined and debated. This religious life has been called (among many other terms) ‘popular Christianity,’ ‘local Christianity,’ the ‘second church,’ ‘Religion zweiter Ordnung,’ and ‘the third paganism.’ In my article, I analyse late antique religious life from the viewpoint of encounters—between the ideals of the ecclesiastical elite and the people’s local cultic practices. These practices, embedded in the local communities, varied by regions but we can see similarities in the interaction of bishops with their local population. I will show how the ecclesiastical writers portrayed local cultic practices in negative terms as another religion (‘paganism,’ ‘idolatry,’ ‘demonic/ diabolic practices’), divergent from their own (‘Christianity’), or even as a distortion beyond ‘proper’ religion (‘magic’, ‘superstition’, ‘sacrilege’). In my analysis, I discuss and test various approaches that scholars have developed to understand the tensions between the bishops and the local people: David Frankfurter (local religion), Rubina Raja and Jörg Rüpke (local lived religion), and Nicola Denzey Lewis (magic as lived religion), Lisa Kaaren Bailey (lay religion) and Lucy Grig (popular culture). My focus is on the western Mediterranean world from the fourth to sixth centuries, and the cases of polemical encounters I analyse come from the writings of North Italian, Gallic and Hispanic bishops (Paulinus of Nola, Maximus of Turin, Philaster of Brescia, Caesarius of Arles, and Martin of Braga). I also compare the North Italian, Gallic and Hispanic situations with those in North Africa depicted by Augustine of Hippo.Peer reviewe

Seizing History : Christianising the Past in Late Antique Historiography

Late Antiquity from the third to the sixth centuries was the era of the development of the great Christian narrative, an interpretatio Christiana of the history of humankind. This meant reassessing and relocating past histories, ideas and persons on the historical mental map. In this construction of the past, Christian writers built on the models of the preceding tradition, creating competing chronologies and alternative histories. This article analyses the concept of history conveyed by two Christian fourth- and fifth-century historians, Eusebius of Caesarea and Orosius, and discusses the various ways in which these writers created the Christian past. One of the ways was to determine the greater antiquity of Christianity in comparison to the Greco-Roman tradition. This led Eusebius to develop his synchronistic chronology of the human past in his Chronici canones. In his approach, Eusebius developed further the Greek chronographic tradition for Christian apologetic purposes. Another way was to interpret history as guided by divine providence. For example, for Orosius in his Historiae adversus paganos, the appearance of Christianity in the Roman Empire was part of the divine plan for humankind. The concept of divine providence was also connected with ideas of divine favour and anger. In the world view of ancient Christian writers such as Orosius, divine retribution played an important role in explaining the adversities of humankind. Even though Orosius is usually dismissed in modern scholarship as a crude and unsophisticated historian, his ideas deserve a more nuanced reading. This article argues that both Eusebius and Orosius developed their views of history in contention with other, prevailing views of the past. Both writers aimed to challenge these views – Eusebius with his synchronistic chronology and Orosius with his reappraisal of the entire history of Rome

Johdatus käännökseen : Augustinus ja Volusianus

Peer reviewe

Keisarit ja kurtisaanit antiikintutkimuksen aallonharjalla

Arvosteltu teos: Keisarit ja kurtisaanit. Perhe, valta ja seksi antiikin Roomassa / Jussi Rantala. Helsinki : Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2018

Augustinuksen kaksi valtakuntaa

Augustinus ja muut kristityt kirjoittajat jakoivat kirjoituksissaan maailman kahtia, ovat erilaisiin vastakkaispareihin: kristittyihin ja pakanoihin, valoon ja pimeyteen, hyvään ja pahaan. Jumalan valtakunta, civitas Dei ja maallinen valtakunta, civitas terrena ovat hyvä esimerkki tällaisesta vastakkaisparista, binaarioppositiosta. Vastakkainparin toinen puoli ei voi olla olemassa ilman toista puolta, sillä toista puolta ei voi määritellä ilman toista eikä toinen voi olla edes olemassa ilman toista