Grecia e Roma nella Storia delle Religioni by Giuseppe Graneris (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 699 pleasant to remember that after nearly thirty years in prison, and having been physically tortured both by the Inquisition and the Spanish civil authorities, this extraordinary man was declared a Master in Sacred Theology by the General Chapter which met at Rome in 16~9. KENELM FosTER, 0. P. Blackfriars Cambridge, England Grecia e Roma nella Storia delle Religioni. By GmsEPPE GRANERIS. Studi e Ricerche di Scienze Religiose, No. 1. Edizioni della Pontificia Academia Romana. Citta Nuova Editrice, 1970. Pp. 393. This book could be described as an attempt to place the religions of Greece and Rome in historical perspective and to situate them in the general history of religions. It contains, however, no general introduction to the whole series nor any explicit outline of the aims and method of this particular book. After a brief introduction the religions of Greece and Rome are dealt with separately. Finally, the author discusses some common elements and problems. The introduction accepts much of the commonly shared orientations of contemporary historians of religions. The limitations of archaeology in unearthing the religions of the past is readily admitted. The author rightly rejects the archaic endeavors to draw up stages of religious evolution . And again he admits that ethnological and cultural elements are related to religious facts. The rest of the book does not, however, live up to this promising introduction. Over one-third of the chapters are given over to describing the various Greek and Roman gods. Their history, attributes, religious functions, and family relationships are all portrayed in monotonous sequence. The often concise and accurate statements about these gods make useful encyclopedic references. But the reader is given no idea of the part gods played in the daily lives of their adherents. The importance of each of these gods to the Greeks and Romans is not shown; the reader is left to make his own imaginative conclusions. In spite of the early admittance of the importance of cultural elements, the author does not supply his readers with enough cultural material to make the subject-matter of his book intelligible. Consequently the reader is not able to see Greek and Roman religions as ways of life nourishing the day-to-day living of the believers, supplying them with meaningful explanations of the world around them, and presenting ideals worth following. To give one example, prayer is never related to culture. 700 BOOK REVIEWS Prayer-forms are not seen as part of a cultural style, and prayer-content is not envisaged as an expression of the cultural needs of a people. Or again, immortality is singled out as an important attribute of the gods. But why this is the case is never spelled out; nor does the author put much emphasis on immortality as a human ideal which leaves enormous impact on burial customs, legal practices of child-adoption, and so on. At one point the author makes the appropriate remark that anthropomorphic elements, which are characteristic of the gods, are symbolical in nature. Much light would have been shed on these religions had the symbols been examined and analyzed. One is never sure of what the author is really doing in the final section of his book. His claim might be that he is trying to place Greece and Rome in the general framework of the history of religions. His most important statement is that the two classical religions have features common both to Indo-european and Mediterranean religions. Such features are not examined, and the significance of the similarities referred to is not explored. Most of what the author writes in these final eighty pages could be described as haphazard reflections. Why he has to end with a theological postscript which explains all religions-Islam excepted, or left out, or possibly ignored-as a " praeparatio evangelica " to Christianity is not clear at all. In short, this book says a lot about Greek and Roman religions, but it still leaves the reader in the dark. One can hardly say that his understanding of these religions has been enhanced. How the various gods and cults formed part of the people's religious experience--a concept the author ignores-remains a mysterious puzzle...