Classics and Ancient History Seminar Series: 'Religious pluralism in Antiquity: Herodotus, the Roman Republic and late Antiquity' (Prof. Jan Bremmer, University of Groningen)
5:00pm - 6:00pm /
Tuesday 27th November 2018
/ Venue: Walbank Lecture Theatre Abercromby SQ (south)
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In my lecture I will start by making a distinction between diversity and pluralism. The first term I employ as a descriptive term for differences between and within religions, whereas the second one has a more normative content and concerns ‘the frameworks of public policy, law and social practices which recognise, accommodate, regulate and facilitate religious diversity’ (James Beckford). For example, a recent article can be entitled: ‘Diversity without Pluralism: Religious Landscape in Mainland China’, because, as is well known, the Chinese state does not recognise certain religious groups and even actively persecutes or harasses them.
In titles of books, the term ‘religious pluralism’ only takes off in 1980 after the publication of the British theologian and philosopher John Hick’s (1922-2012) famous study 'God Has Many Names: Britain’s New Religious Pluralism', surely the fruit of the secularising of British society. Since then, there has been an endless stream of books and articles with ‘religious pluralism’ in the title, but much less in the study of the ancient world, where we find it exclusively used, as far as I can see, by historians of Roman religion. Making use of our two concepts, I will start by looking at Herodotus’ view of Persian religion as an example of religious diversity (§ 1), then analyse the vocabulary of diversity in the Roman Republic and the early Principate (§ 2) and, finally, albeit of course only summarily, I will look at the place of diversity and pluralism in Late Antiquity (§ 3), followed by some final considerations.
In titles of books, the term ‘religious pluralism’ only takes off in 1980 after the publication of the British theologian and philosopher John Hick’s (1922-2012) famous study 'God Has Many Names: Britain’s New Religious Pluralism', surely the fruit of the secularising of British society. Since then, there has been an endless stream of books and articles with ‘religious pluralism’ in the title, but much less in the study of the ancient world, where we find it exclusively used, as far as I can see, by historians of Roman religion. Making use of our two concepts, I will start by looking at Herodotus’ view of Persian religion as an example of religious diversity (§ 1), then analyse the vocabulary of diversity in the Roman Republic and the early Principate (§ 2) and, finally, albeit of course only summarily, I will look at the place of diversity and pluralism in Late Antiquity (§ 3), followed by some final considerations.