In this paper Professor Rives will sketch out a model for mapping religious change in the Roman Empire, a model built around the contrast between orthopraxy and orthodoxy. He begins by outlining what he sees as the key characteristics of these two social systems, focusing especially on how those with power exercise that power in matters concerning human relations with the divine world. Professor Rives then explores each of them in turn in more detail, through the specific examples of the practice of animal sacrifice, in the case of orthopraxy, and Paul’s letter to the Galatians, in the case of orthodoxy. He concludes by stressing that his goal is simply to develop a model that can describe certain key aspects of religious change in the Roman imperial period and that, like all models, it simplifies and abstracts, and so obscures a fair amount of complexity and nuance.

Sponsored by: Classical Studies, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, and Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies