Approaching ‘Religious Identity’ in Late Antiquity

2020 ◽  
pp. 15-27
Author(s):  
Éric Rebillard
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
Identity Salience ◽  
Theoretical Considerations

The category of ‘semi-Christians’ has often been criticized, but nevertheless seems to endure in academic discourse. It is used for describing Christians who do not fully embrace Christianity. After a review of the use of this category and its critics, this chapter proposes a shift of paradigm for approaching ‘religious identity’ in late antiquity. Instead of classifying individuals according to one category membership, their ‘religious identity’, I introduce the notion of identity salience and that of arrangement of category membership sets. Finally, I consider what such theoretical considerations can bring to the understanding of individuals described as ‘semi-Christians’ with the case-studies of Ausonius and Macrobius.

Rhetoric and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Medieval History ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
New Perspective

The topic of religious identity in late antiquity is highly contentious. How did individuals and groups come to ascribe identities based on what would now be known as ‘religion’, categorizing themselves and others with regard to Judaism, Manichaeism, traditional Greek and Roman practices, and numerous competing conceptions of Christianity? How and why did examples of self-identification become established, activated, or transformed in response to circumstances? To what extent do labels (ancient and modern) for religious categories reflect a sense of a unified and enduring social or group identity for those included within them? How does religious identity relate to other forms of ancient identity politics (for example, ethnic discourse concerning ‘barbarians’)? This book responds to the recent upsurge of interest in this issue by developing interdisciplinary research between classics, ancient and medieval history, philosophy, religion, patristics, and Byzantine studies, expanding the range of evidence standardly used to explore these questions. In exploring the malleability and potential overlapping of religious identities in late antiquity, as well as their variable expressions in response to different public and private contexts, it challenges some prominent scholarly paradigms through a combination of methodological discussions and case studies of specific texts, authors, genres, themes, and artistic corpora. In particular, rhetoric and religious identity are here brought together and simultaneously interrogated to provide mutual illumination: in what way does a better understanding of rhetoric (its rules, forms, practices) enrich our understanding of the expression of late-antique religious identity? How does an understanding of how religious identity was ascribed, constructed, and contested provide us with a new perspective on rhetoric at work in late antiquity?

'The Proof is on My Palm': Debating Ethnicity, Islam and Ritual in a New African Diaspora

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
African Diaspora ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
World Religion ◽  
Guinea Bissau ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common

AbstractFor Mandinga in Guinea-Bissau and Portugal, life-course rituals are currently provoking transnational debates on ethnic and religious identity. In Guinea-Bissau, these two identities are thought to be one and the same—to be Mandinga is to 'naturally' be Muslim. For Mandinga immigrants in Portugal, however, the experience of transnationalism and the allure of 'global Islam' have thrust this long-held notion into debate. In this article, I explore the contours and consequences of this debate by focusing on the 'writing-on-the-hand' ritual, which initiates Mandinga children into Qur'anic study. Whereas some Mandinga immigrants in Portugal view the writing-on-the-hand ritual as essential for conferring both Muslim identity and 'Mandinga-ness', others feel that this Mandinga 'custom' should be abandoned for a more orthodox version of Islam. Case studies reveal an internal debate about Mandinga ethnicity, Islam and ritual, one that transcends the common 'traditionalist'/'modernist' distinction. I suggest that the internal debate, although intensified by migration, is not itself a consequence of 'modernity' but has long been central to how Mandinga imagine themselves as both members of a distinct ethnic group and as practitioners of the world religion of Islam.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harriet I. Flower
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Home Town ◽  
Previous Discussion ◽  
The World

The characteristic ubiquity of lares in the Roman home, town, and countryside is matched by the impressive survival of their cults throughout antiquity. Most of the previous discussion has investigated lares in republican and early imperial times, but they survived well into the world of late antiquity, despite increasingly heated competition from an army of new and exotic gods, some of whom made elaborate promises of personal salvation and a future life of bliss. This epilogue draws upon a section of the Theodosian Code (published on February 15 AD 438) to provide a fitting way to conclude this study, which considered many small case studies and individual pieces of evidence to offer a mosaic picture of life with lares. The Theodosian Code here quotes a law promulgated on November 8 AD 392 at Constantinople that bans traditional Roman practices.

Egyptian Life, by and with Literary Texts

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludwig D. Morenz
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Potential Significance ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Belles Lettres ◽  
Egyptian Literature ◽  
And Function ◽  
Writing Errors ◽  
Theoretical Considerations ◽  
Middle Egyptian

This chapter discusses aspects of Egyptian ‘fine literature’ (belles-lettres), and combines general literary and cultural-scientific theoretical considerations with specific case studies from both Middle Egyptian and Late Egyptian literature. It addresses questions of form and function, producers and recipients, as well as discussing the search for empirical readers. Also discussed are the question of original manuscripts and the potential significance of writing errors.

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