An Enchanted World: The Shared Religious Landscape of Late Antiquity

“Interaction with the supernatural infused nearly every aspect of everyday life” during Late Antiquity, argues religious studies scholar Satlow (How the Bible Became Holy) in this somewhat stuffy account. Aiming to shed light on the everyday “lived religion” of the people, Satlow contends that, despite the era’s growing institutional rifts, on the ground there was a “shared spiritual landscape” that involved frequent interactions with “divine agents.” Satlow begins with a sensory tour of Roman cities in Late Antiquity—about 70 to 620 CE—from the smell of the market and the sound of public games to the sight of temples and altars. He shows how religious identities at the time were more fluid than fixed and lays out the hierarchy of the “divine realm” including angels, demons, and saints that common people would have wanted to appease. Elsewhere, he juxtaposes the religious professionals who shaped the historical record of religion, thereby informing today’s views of the past, with the everyday spiritual practitioners who helped common people get in touch with the divine, such as astrologers. He concludes that “we share more than we don’t,” depicting the ancient world as having a modern-seeming hodgepodge of spirituality that only looks rigid in the records left behind by “literate factions.” While it’s an optimistic message, the dry writing makes it difficult to take in. (Feb.)