Beyond Priesthood: Religious Entrepreneurs and Innovators in the Roman Empire

The last decade has seen a surge of scholarly interest in these religious professionals and a good number of high quality publications. Our volume, however, with its unique intercultural character and its explicit focus on appropriation and contestation of religious expertise in the Imperial Era is substantially different. Unlike the rather narrow focus of earlier studies of civic priests, the papers presented here examine a wider range of religious professionals, their dynamic interaction with established religious authorities and institutions, and their contributions to religious innovation in the ancient Mediterranean world, from the late Hellenistic period through to Late Antiquity, from the City of Rome to mainland Greece, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, from Greek civic practice to ancient Judaism. A further advantage of our volume is the wide range of media of transmission taken into account. Our contributors look at both old and new materials, which derive not only from literary sources but also from papyri, inscriptions, and material culture. Above all, this volume assesses critically convenient terminological usage and offers a unique insight into a rich gamut of ancient Mediterranean religious specialists.

Frontmatter --; Table of Contents --; Acknowledgements --; Bibliographical Note --; List of Illustrations --; Notes on the Contributors --; Introduction --; Part I: Innovation: Forms and Limits --; Public priests and religious innovation in imperial Rome /; Lucian on Peregrinus and Alexander of Abonuteichos: A sceptical view of two religious entrepreneurs /; Lived Religion among second-century 'Gnostic hieratic specialists' /; On and beyond duty: Christian clergy at Oxyrhynchus (c. 250 - 400) /; Part II: The Author as Religious Entrepreneur --; Best practice. Religious reformation in Philo's representation of the Therapeutae and Therapeutrides /; A roadmap to heaven: High-priestly vestments and the Jerusalem Temple in Flavius Josephus /; Contesting religious and medical expertise: The therapeutai of Pergamum as religious and medical entrepreneurs /; Christians, the 'more obvious' representatives of the religion of Israel than the Rabbis? /; Rhetorical indications of the poet's craft in the ancient synagogue /; Part III: Filling in the Blanks --; In search of the 'beggar-priest' /; Projects, performance and charisma: Managing small religious groups in the Roman Empire /; Enforcing priesthood. The struggle for the monopolisation of religious goods and the construction of the Christian religious field /; Part IV: 'Written on the Body' --; Tertium genus? Representations of religious practitioners in the cult of Magna Mater /; Negotiating the body: Between religious investment and narratological strategies. Paulina, Decius Mundus and the priests of Anubis /; 'You can leave your hat on.' Priestly representations from Palmyra: Between visual genre, religious importance and social status /; Index rerum / Rüpke, Jörg / Santangelo, Federico --; Bremmer, Jan N. --; Lewis, Nicola Denzey --; Luijendijk, AnneMarie --; Standhartinger, Angela --; Weissenrieder, Annette --; Petridou, Georgia --; Vinzent, Markus --; Swartz, Michael D. --; Eidinow, Esther --; Gordon, Richard --; Urciuoli, Emiliano Rubens --; Klöckner, Anja --; Gasparini, Valentino --; Raja, Rubina --