A Jewish Actor in the Audience: Josephan Doublespeak

In this chapter, we explore Josephus further, attempting to show how the word thrēskeia, which appears in his writing more than in any other writer prior to him, is frequently used to produce a kind of double-meaning, with two readings available, a positive one for Jewish readers and a negative one for Romans. This usage fits in with other patterns of equivocation in Josephus’s writing (as well as in other Roman writers of his days) and is hard to see if one is focused on a chimerical “religion.”

Precarious Integration. Managing the Fears of the Romans: Tertullian on Tenterhooks

This chapter explores the often very different understanding of the world that Tertullian expresses in his “negotiatory” or “conciliatory” moods.

Governed by a Perfect Fear

This chapter continues the project of placing Tertullian’s particular conceptions within the broader framework of his thought. In this chapter, I concentrate on his notions of effective government.

The Thrēskeia of the Judaeans: Josephus and The New Testament

In this chapter, we begin to show how Josephus, the first-century AD Jewish historian, can be understood much more richly without the concept of “religion” getting in the way. What we would separate as religious and political are not at all separated in his work or presumably in his cultural world.

Imagine No Thrēskeia: The Task of the Untranslator

In this chapter, using the methodology laid out in the chapter on religio, it is shown that the usage of the Greek word thrēskeia, usually translated as “religion,” does not map well on to the usage of that word in modern European languages, suggesting that in those cultures a different sort of organization of concepts is present. The methodological basis for these scholarly practices is further explored.

The Ciceronian Turn

This chapter addresses the motivations for the particular innovations made by Cicero in the meanings and interpretation of Latin religio, for his wanting to abandon the balancing systems of Roman life and thought in favor of a fixed hierarchical system headed by a powerful and dangerous god, with fixed laws reinforced by punishments and rewards after death.

Introduction: What You Can See When You Stop Looking for What Isn’t There

When one encounters the word “religion” in a translation of an ancient text: First, cross out the word whenever it occurs. Next, find a copy of the text in question in its original language and see what word (if any) is being translated by “religion.” Third, come up with a different translation: It almost doesn’t matter what. Anything besides “religion.”...

Josephus without Judaism: Nomos, Eusebeia, Thrēskeia

In this chapter, I continue to explore this writer who used this word thrēskeia more than any other writer of antiquity. I propose to show how it is possible and distinctly advantageous to describe Josephus’ world entirely without using the concept of “religion” at all. Josephus, the son of Mattias, was one of the generals of the revolt of the Jews of Palestine against Rome in the first century. At a certain point in the war, he changed his mind and his colors, and attempting to convince his fellows of the hopelessness of the war and the likelihood of total destruction, he became a client of Vespasian the Roman general (later to be emperor) and of his son Titus (also a future emperor), spending the rest of his days (20 years) in Rome in a palace provided by the former and writing all his books there. He not only changed his mind but also his name: the new nomen, Flavius, honoring his new patrons. Josephus is always in a cultural situation of negotiation or mediation between loyalties, writing apologetically, as it were, to both his Judaean and Roman audiences at one and the same time.

Segregated by a Perfect Fear. The Terrible War Band of the Anti-Emperor: The Coniuratio and the Sacramentum

This chapter continues placing Tertullian’s concepts (of religio, disciplina, fides, etc.) within the broader framework—not only of his own thought, but of Roman life and thought.

Segregated by a Perfect Fear

This chapter addresses Tertullian’s strategies of thought in dealing with the complex hierarchical—and fearful—Roman Empire; it addresses the reasons why he, like Cicero, rejects the inner balancing systems and inhibitions of religio and embraces, instead, the extremes of fear that will, if taken far enough, be experienced as fearlessness.