What do we fail to see when we force other, earlier cultures into the Procrustean bed of concepts that organize our contemporary world? In Imagine No Religion, Carlin A. Barton and Daniel Boyarin map the myriad meanings of the Latin and Greek words religio and thrēskeia, frequently and reductively mistranslated as “religion,” in order to explore the manifold nuances of their uses within ancient Roman and Greek societies. In doing so, they reveal how we can conceptualize anew and speak of these cultures without invoking the anachronistic concept of religion. From Plautus to Tertullian, Herodotus to Josephus, Imagine No Religion illuminates cultural complexities otherwise obscured by our modern-day categories.
- Cover
- Imagine No Religion
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- CONTENTS
- A Note on Authorship
- Introduction: What You Can See When You Stop Looking for What Isn’t There
- Religio
- Part I. Mapping the Word
- 1. Religio without “Religion”
- 2. The Ciceronian Turn
- Part II. Case Study: Tertullian
- 3. Preface to Tertullian
- 4. Segregated by a Perfect Fear
- 5. Segregated by a Perfect Fear. The Terrible War Band of the Anti-Emperor: The Coniuratio and the Sacramentum
- 6. Governed by a Perfect Fear
- 7. Precarious Integration. Managing the Fears of the Romans: Tertullian on Tenterhooks
- Thrēskeia
- Part I. Mapping the Word
- 8. Imagine No Thrēskeia: The Task of the Untranslator
- 9. The Thrēskeia of the Judaeans: Josephus and the New Testament
- Part II. Case Study: Josephus
- 10. Josephus without Judaism: Nomos, Eusebeia, Thrēskeia
- 11. A Jewish Actor in the Audience: Josephan Doublespeak
- 12. A Glance at the Future: Thrēskeia and the Literature of Apologetic, First to Third Centuries C.E.
- Conclusion: What You Find When You Stop Looking for What Isn’t There
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of Ancient Texts
- General Index