Sponsored by the Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Nancy Evans (Wheaton College), Organizer
Traditional accounts of religion in the ancient Mediterranean for many years emphasized a fundamental distinction between the polytheism of most traditional religions on the one hand and the monotheism of Judaism and Christianity on the other. Recent scholarship has complicated that simple dichotomy, by exploring both aspects of monotheism in “pagan” contexts and the multiplicity of superhuman beings in Jewish and Christian contexts.
The Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions invites scholars and students of the religions of the ancient Mediterranean world, including Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Near Eastern religions, as well as early Christianity and Judaism, to submit abstracts that address one aspect of “theism” or related categories in ancient religion. Such aspects might include (but are not limited to):
- modern analytical categories, e.g., henotheism and “pagan” monotheism
- ancient categories of superhuman beings, e.g. theoi, heroes, and daimones in Greek
- the dividing line between “human” and “divine,” e.g. in the context of ruler worship or the cult of the dead
- the varying treatment of these issues in different contexts, e.g., cult, philosophy, literature, art
Abstracts should be submitted by email attachment as .doc or .rtf files to socamr@gmail.com and should be from 500-600 words in length for a paper to last between 15 to 20 minutes. Abstracts should contain a title and a word count, but should not have any information regarding the identity of the submitter. For further information about abstract format, please see the SCS Program Guide. The deadline for submission of abstracts is February 15, 2015, and all abstracts for papers will be reviewed anonymously. For further information, please contact Nancy Evans, Department of Classics, Wheaton College, Norton, MA 02766 (nevans@wheatonma.edu).