This volume comes out of discussions held at three meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2008 and 2009. Aiming to encourage dialogue between classicists, historians and religious scholars, the editors have managed to gather specialists in Roman religion and Biblical Studies. The result is a volume that preserves a remarkable coherence between the fifteen papers which compose it.
All contributions discuss the views of Karl Galinsky, whose essay (‘The cult of the Roman emperor: uniter or divider?’) forms the first chapter of the book. The initiator of the meetings, G. opens the debate with a historiographical and methodological discussion. His paper summarizes the problems raised by the definition of the imperial cult and the relationship between Roman religion and nascent Christianity. He stresses that the imperial cult was not a ‘monolithic phenomenon’ and did not weaken traditional religions in the Roman Empire. From the biblical scholar's viewpoint, he explains, the imperial cult has too often been studied as a simple background for the new Christian religion. This position has led to simplistic visions of statically opposed phenomena. In an effort to move beyond this dichotomy, G. invites a study of the imperial cult that would emphasize its diversity, and situate it within the imperial ‘religious pluralism’. The answer of the first Christian communities must have been equally various and complex.
The four short contributions which follow discuss the methodological implications of G.'s remarks. They all particularly stress the importance of the theoretical framework in studies of the imperial cult. S. Friesen suggests the use of the plural (‘imperial cults’) to bring home the extent of its diversity and recommends a study of the ‘subtleties of responses to imperial cult’ among the first followers of Jesus. J. C. Hanges underlines the importance of Postcolonial Studies for the comprehension of the Roman Empire in general and of the imperial cult in particular. J. Brodd calls for a clarification of the concept of religion that would take into account the wide differences between ancient and modern religious phenomena. Finally, M. Orlin uses the distinction between ‘locative’ and ‘utopian’ religion to suggest a new analysis of Augustan religion. For him, Roman religion, mostly a locative one, developed utopian tendencies long before the emergence of the imperial cult. He gives the example of the development of the cult of the Capitoline Triad outside of the city of Rome. These tendencies formed the background in which imperial cult and Christianity, both ‘utopian’ religions, could grow.
The second part of the book consists of case studies illustrating the themes of the first five chapters. B. S. Spaeth, N. Evans and D. N. Schowalter evoke the ‘embeddedness’ of the imperial cult in civic religion in, respectively, Corinth, Athens and Pergamon. The authors characterize the imperial cult as a multifaceted phenomenon, deeply rooted in civic religious structures. J. S. MacLaren demonstrates that the Galilean involvement in the Jewish revolt in a.d. 66 is the result neither of an invasive imperial cult nor of an intensification of the Roman occupation. In his view, one should see what happened in Galilee as a result of the events in Judaea and not of local circumstances.
The third part of the volume is concerned with the relations between the imperial cult and Jewish and Christian communities in the Empire. W. Carter's paper rejects binary oppositions between ‘religion’ and ‘politics’ and between Roman religion and Christianity. As a New Testament scholar, he stresses the diversity of the cultic participation in emperor worship among the first Christian communities. Studying John's Gospel and Paul's letters, he rejects the basic opposition between ‘accommodationists’, such as Jezebel, and ‘oppositionists’, such as John himself. According to him, even those two extremist figures have in fact complex and ambiguous attitudes. R. M. Jensen focuses on the continuities and discontinuities between the iconography of the imperial cult and that of Christ. Analysing images of the fourth century, he concludes that Christ not only appears as superior to pagan gods, but becomes himself the divine ruler. L. M. White hails the contribution of Postcolonial Studies, which offers a nuanced vision of the relationship between Roman power and native populations. He illustrates the complexity of the reception of Roman rule by studying Jewish groups living in Greek cities: the epigraphic evidence shows that some Jewish groups adopted the Greek practice of giving civic honours, even to non-Jewish people. He proposes the notion of ‘negotiated symbiosis’ to characterize the integration of these groups in cities.
The last part of the volume consists in three conclusive contributions. In a recapitulative essay, Galinsky calls for reinforcing the interdisciplinary dialogue between classicists and biblical scholars, and gives a survey of the historiography of imperialism and Romanization, too often ignored by religious scholars. Two short responses by H. G. Snyder, as a New Testament scholar, and N. Evans, as a Hellenist, conclude the book, but, the authors hope, not the discussion.
This volume offers an interesting approach to debates that will be useful to both biblical scholars and classicists who study the imperial cult. One could lament some simplifications and omissions, probably due to the small size of its essays. The quasi-exclusive focus on books written in the English language is particularly regrettable, K. Galinsky being the only author who discusses German scholars’ study of the Reichsreligion. But, with its focus on theoretical and methodological questions, the book is a very pleasant and stimulating contribution to the study of Roman religions.
