Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'Rome'

Etruscan Rite & Roman Religion

September 24th, 2011 · 2 Comments · History, Neolithic, Power, Ritual

“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
With this famous sentence, Jean-Jacques Rousseau begins his masterful critique of political power. Less well known is another sentence from The Social Contract (1762): “No State has ever been founded without Religion serving as its base.”
My reading of history is that Rousseau was right. State-formation [...]

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No Bull: The Mithras Cult & Christianity

September 5th, 2011 · 5 Comments · History, Pagans, Ritual

In his 1880 Hibbert Lecture on the history of early Christianity, Ernest Renan commented: “I sometimes permit myself to say that, if Christianity had not carried the day, Mithraicism would have become the religion of the world.” While it is doubtful that a Persian-influenced mystery cult which appealed primarily to Roman soldiers, officials, and aristocrats [...]

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Gallo-Roman Temple Complex Discovered

August 19th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology, History, Pagans, Ritual

Over at The Guardian, Pierre Le Hir reports on the discovery of an “enormous religious site” or temple complex in the French countryside near Le Mans, which during the first through third centuries common era (C.E.) was known as Vindunum.  As viewers of HBO’s spectacular but short-lived series “Rome” and readers of Julius Caesar’s Commentarii [...]

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