Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide (review)

I heartily recommend this reference volume. Focusing on religion, a relatively vital aspect of ancient cultures, this is a handsomely produced volume, thoughtfully presented, and sharply edited. It has engaged the services of a fine editorial board and the contributions of a large number of recognized specialists. General editor Johnston has committed to fresh approaches, both in conceptualizing how Mediterranean religions operated and in presenting the results in a bold format. A guiding principle is that the barriers that separated ancient cultures are artificial and largely of our own making. It does the heart of this student of Cyrus Gordon good to find his creed proclaimed with such zeal here, programmatically if not always successfully.

Johnston's (charming) introduction uses the story of Croesus as an organizational conceit. The Lydian's search throughout his known world for oracular reliability inspires the volume's first section, "Encountering Ancient Religions," containing eleven essays (about twelve pages each) with topics broad enough to cut across the Ancient Near East and the classical world through early Christianity. To me this section is the most interesting of the volume, albeit also the most burdened by its difficult goal. Truth to tell, however, during the past half-century, the training of scholars has largely favored narrow specialization and the consequence is obvious. While a couple of essays (for example, Bremmer's on Ritual) deserve credit for trying, I sensed that the more restrictive the theme (for example chapters on "Ritual," "Laws and Ethics," "Pollution, Sin, Atonement, Salvation"), the more individual authors were likely to stick to their chosen expertise. In some cases, hardly any attempt is made to cross frontiers: "Mysteries," ironically enough by editor Johnston, simply hugs familiar territory. Just as well, too, as some authors have depended on barely understood secondary literature to flesh out their exposition (as in Graf's citation of a Mari text, 15). Still, on the broader themes there are a couple of tours de force: Assmann's essay on "Monotheism and Polytheism" is certainly one of them, even if he works with a definition for monotheism that is too flexible for my taste. Otto's "Laws and Ethics" could be another were it a tad less dense. Graf's on Myth is fine.

The second section, "Histories," offers the same number of essays (eleven) but allots them slightly less space. What we find here are the survey articles of decent encyclopedias and dictionaries. Here the challenge is to make cogent remarks on how theological and cultic sensibilities evolved over long stretches (millennia, in the cases of Egypt and Babylon) without the benefit of setting them within historical contexts. Not easy; but the authors have largely done credible jobs. The third and final section is the longest, not just in page numbers but also in word count, because it uses double columns per page and smaller font. With its twenty chapters, this is the core of the book, with specialists contributing relatively focused expositions (with brief bibliographies) on "Key Topics" and themes, such as divination, sin, and ethics. An occasional gazetteer (such as of festivals) proves very helpful. Here editorial skills are well displayed, keeping contributors largely on target. The result is atomistic; but, to keep faith with the comparative mission of the volume, some of the chapters begin with an introduction that means to tie together the individual presentations but often simply reshapes notices from earlier chapters. I find these pages to be particularly useful as they juxtapose the essence of acquired knowledge within each field in an attractive and succinct fashion. They also invite us to broaden our sensitivity to ancient cultures by letting us inspect each and all through a convenient format.

Altogether, a very successful venture attractively displayed and priced.