Course description/summary
Freedom of worship and religion constitutes today an individual freedom right and as such one of the four fundamental basic civil liberties. Religious believe and worship are considered today private matters and freedom of worship has become a core value of western, liberal, democratic societies where state and religion are ideally separated. “The public/private distinction is fundamental to modern theories of family, religion and religious freedom, and state power, yet it has … been understood differently, from place to place and time to time” (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110367034/html?lang=en). While the political system of ancient republican Rome is often described as a precedent and inspiration for modern democratic societies, the political and religious spheres in Rome - as everywhere else in the ancient world - were not separated, but closely interconnected. Roman citizens performed religious actions simultaneouly on a regular basis in different contexts: in public as citizens, in private as members of their family, as members of religious associations or as individuals on their own. All these religious activities were performed in a continuum. Here it becomes clear that the public/private distinction so fundamental to modern theories of family, religion and religious freedom, state and power has been understood differently in antiquity. On the one hand - Aristocratic politicians and senators and later the emperors functioned as religious personnel in numerous multiple tasks in the “official” Roman civic religion which was central to political and cultural life in Rome and highly important for a Roman collective and individual identity. Roman Religion was part of warfare and imperialistic rule, social and political power struggles as well as senatorial and legal decisions. Religious motifs and rituals were essential for culture in all its aspects and dominated the public life throughout the year. Furthermore, the official civic religious system and its laws and rituals served as additional control mechanisms of political decision making and as justifications - or negations - for actions on the political and social level. On the other hand - Roman citizens were religiously active beyond the context of the civic religion and performed openly religious acts and rituals in their private lives in a variety of alternative religious groups often of foreign origin. These comprehensive religious activities on a private level took place in a sphere which was beyond the official civic religion and in principle not interfered with by the Roman authorities. The widespread private individual and collective forms of worship by Roman citizens - as well as the religious activities of non-Roman citizens in Rome or the provinces of the Empire - were not limited or restricted by Roman authorities as long as the public order and welfare or the economy were not disturbed or endangered. With other words: private Roman cult groups of Roman citizens or provincials were usually tolerated by the state. Persecutions, limitations and prohibitions were rare phenomena. - Through reading, interpretation and discussion of relevant ancient sources and resesarch literature the seminar will describe the religious life in ancient Rome and its provinces. It will deconstruct the popular image of an hostile attitude of Roman authorities towards private cult groups or other non-Roman religions and will show that large scale persecutions of religious groups or foreign religions were very exceptional and usually caused by reasons other than religious concerns. The differentiation between official civic religion and individual worship rather resulted in a high level of tolerance for the individual freedom of worship which came to an end only when Christianity as the only legitimate religion of the Empire finally replaced the Roman civic religion. The seminar will check if modern concepts of the individual freedom of worship - which “consists of the right to practice, to manifest and to change one’s religion and where the modern democratic state is neutral towards the variety of religions, but protects the right of citizens to practice their different religious beliefs” (https://brill.com/display/title/31824) - have their roots in ancient Roman civilization in spite of the close linkage between politics and religion in antiquity.