Research project
Unravelling the ‘Great Secret’. The invention of religion in late ancient literature
Late Antiquity is characterized by migration movements, political unrest and religious strife. The way we assess these religious conflicts is often coloured by a post-Reformation understanding of ‘religion’. In my research, I show that late ancient authors understood religion in a way that differs much from our compartmentalised views.
- Duration
- 2026 - 2030
- Contact
- Hubert Mooiman
- Funding
-
NWO Funding in the Humanities
Late Antiquity is often characterized as a period of ongoing border conflicts, political intrigue, and religious strife. Especially religious debates have long been considered essential for understanding Late Antiquity: the period between the emperors Julian (‘the Apostate’, 361-363) and Justinian I (527-565) is generally seen as a battleground between ‘Pagans’ and ‘Christians’.
Religion indeed played a crucial role in late ancient society – but modern scholarship often doesn’t recognize that the way we understand religion obscures late ancient understanding of it. Our post-Enlightenment, compartmentalized view of different ‘religions’, and of ‘religion’ as opposed to ‘secularism’, hampers the way late ancient authors really constructed what we now call ‘religion’.
Instead of relying on a supposed division between ‘Pagans’ and ‘Christians’, this project will therefore analyze the ancient religious reference system from its textual basis. The project will focus on Late Antiquity’s complex Greek and Latin literary heritage. Late ancient authors use literature’s inherently discursive nature to present ideas and concepts of ‘religion’ that show a remarkable flexibility concerning different religious systems.
Surveying a broad chronological spectrum, this project analyzes the entangled literary and cultural networks of ‘Pagans’ and ‘Christians’ and demonstrates how their discourses became testing grounds for theoretically reflecting about ‘religious’ thought. It shows that ‘Pagans’ and ‘Christians’ were not divided into factions that each apologetically defended a ‘true faith’, but shared much common ground and, through polemics and controversy, found new ways to explain their shared metaphysical ground, the ‘Great Secret’ of being, in the dramatically changing world of the late ancient Mediterranean.
