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June 17, 2008
Clifford Ando, PhD’96
The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire, University of California Press, 2008.
The book: What did the Romans know about their gods? Why did they perform the rituals of their religion? This book proposes simple answers to these questions: In contrast to ancient Christians, who had faith, Romans had knowledge, and their knowledge was empirical in orientation. They acquired knowledge of the gods through observation of the world, and their rituals were maintained or modified in light of what they learned. After a preface and opening chapters that lay out this argument and place it in context, the book pursues a variety of themes essential to the study of religion in history.
The author: Clifford Ando is professor of classics, history and the college at the University of Chicago and author of “Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire,” winner of the Charles J. Goodwin Award of Merit from the American Philological Association, among other books.
Web site: www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10773.php
Posted by lingjiex at June 17, 2008 11:36 AM