The embeddedness of Greek religion in the polis means that religious practice formed an integral part of the larger network of relationships within the polis. Greek religion was religion-in-practice and Greek religious practices permeated all spheres of life. At the same time, Greek religion was not seen as an abstract category, largely distinct and separate from other spheres of life. In the absence of a church, religion was organised alongside the socio-political structures of the polis.
Greek religion differed from its modern counterparts in that it had no dogma, no official creed, no Bible, no priesthood in the form of a specially trained and entitled group of people. 11 The idea that single areas of social interaction are unavailable for conceptualization was perhaps (.)ĩThe idea that Greek religion was embedded in the polis acted in part as a check on the intrusion of concepts derived from the study of modern religions, in particular Christianity.10 The same kind of embeddedness is usually assumed in studies of Roman religion.What do we mean if we say that religion is ‘embedded’ in the polis? And to what extent is this claim correct? Scholars have made overlapping, but not fully congruent claims about this. The ‘Embeddedness’ of Greek ReligionĨFocus on the polis as the basic unit of Greek life gave rise to a crucial assumption which underlies many works in the field: that of the ‘embeddedness’ of Greek religion in the polis. Polis Religion – A Critical Evaluation 3.1. The concept of polis religion can hence be understood as an attempt to overcome the weakness inherent in its structuralist roots by grounding religion in the specific cultural setting of the Archaic and Classical polis as the cultural context of its symbolic meaning. It conceptualizes the systemic quality of Greek religion as that of a ‘meaningful structure’ grounded in the specific cultural setting of Archaic and Classical Greece. 9 At the same time, the model of polis religion attempts to overcome the ahistoricity of the strictly structuralist (or even formalist) perspective. The explicitly structuralist image frequently evoked to describe the symbolic nature of Greek religion is that of religion as a shared ‘language’ which enabled the Greeks to communicate their experiences of the external world to each other. In particular, the assumption of polis religion as the foundation of a moral community (in the sense of a community sharing a common set of norms and conventions) is Durkheimian in origin. See also B urkert (1985), p. 119, Bowersock (1990), p. 7, de Pol (.)ħIn its general formulation, the model of polis religion reflects Durkheimian and structuralist efforts to ‘make sense’ of Greek religion as a symbolic system. The reach of Greek religious cults and festivals with their public processions and communal forms of sacrifice and prayer mapped onto the reach of polis institutions, such as the demes, the phratries and the genē. In the sphere of religion the polis provided the major context for religious beliefs and practices. 5 The definition of Greek religion as polis religion follows this tripartite structure of Greek society and runs along the following lines.ĤDuring the Archaic and Classical periods, Greece was a conglomerate of largely autonomous city-states with no overall political or administrative structure. Polis religion operates on three levels of Greek society: the polis, the “world-of-the-polis system,” and the panhellenic dimension. 4 Significantly, however, her definition of polis religion transcends the level of the individual polis. 5 See Sourvinou-Inwood (2000a ), p. 13.ģChristiane Sourvinou-Inwood coined the term “polis religion” to describe the “embeddedness” of Greek religion in the polis as the basic unit of Greek social and political life.4 Sourvinou-Inwood (2000a ), Sourvinou-Inwood (2000b ).
0 kommentar(er)
