3.
The Religious Background
Religion
played a crucial role in all of Byzantine history and it is impossible to
understand Byzantine society without a consideration of its religious
dimensions. At the same time, one
should remember that Byzantium was not only a religious society;
rather, it was a society in which religion and other aspects of life were
united in a way that we normally do not find in the modern world.
A.
Approaches to Byzantine Religion
1. Because the
Byzantine Empire was so self-assertively Christian, there is a tendency to
assume that religion and religious sentiments were the same then as now.
2.
This is a major
mistake and students of history have to realize that religion--like nearly
all aspects of life--may have different manifestations at different times.
Thus, we should attempt to maintain an open mind and look at what
people in the past tell us about their religious views: we should not
attempt to impose our views or standards and assume that their view of
religion is the same as our own.
B. Like
nearly everything else, the Byzantine religious system grew out of the
tensions and developments of the classical world.
1. One may point out
the apparent dominance of "official" Greco-Roman polytheism,
based loosely on the Pantheon of the twelve Olympian gods: Zeus (Roman
Jupiter), Athena (Roman Minerva), etc.
2.
This was a system that
was in many ways more cultural and social than it was what we might call
spiritual. Religious worship
was highly localized and classical polytheism had nothing that approached
an organized theology or a priesthood that was anything more than local.
Individual temples (with sime few exceptions) belonged to and were
operated by individual cities.
3.
The most important
aspects of classical polytheism were the festivals of the gods that
combined worship with celebration, eating, drinking, and sometimes even
athletic competition.
4.
Classical religion was
not essentially a matter of belief, but rather a system of actions that
were designed to maintain (or, if necessary, reestablish) good relations
between the gods and the people of a particular city.
5.
There was no real
concept of an afterlife and no need of anything like salvation (salvation
from what?).
C.
Syncretism
1. From Hellenistic
times onward, and increasingly under the Roman Empire, there was a
tendency toward syncretism (the blending of religious traditions).
2.
This took the form,
especially, of the identification of local religious traditions with
broader ideas and concepts. Thus,
for example, the god Apollo might be worshipped very differently from
place, and almost certainly these had started out as very
different gods; as time went by there was a tendency to lump these
ideas and practices together and to smooth over some of the differences.
3.
This was especially
characteristic of the Hellenistic and Roman periods, in which people of
essentially non-Greco-Roman culture were incorporated into
Mediterranean-based empires. Their
religious ideas and practices were often very different from those
associated with the classical Pantheon, but an attempt was made to blend
these traditions.
4.
The flexible and
non-dogmatic nature of classical polytheism, however (where one could
worship as many gods as one liked), meant that local traditions were
always respected, so people could (and did) speak of Capitoline Jupiter
(in Rome), Ephesian Artemis, the Syrian Great Gods , and a host of other
local deities, all of whom could be associated with the classical Pantheon
but whose appearance, characteristics, and worship might be all strikingly
different.
5. In
addition, increasingly under the Roman Empire, there was a tendency for
this syncretism to lead to a
kind of monotheism, where people either posited a single Great God above
all the rest, or--perhaps more commonly--an identification of all the gods
un which the individual gods were seen as manifestations of the same great
divine spirit.
D.
Philosophy
1. Not surprisingly,
this tendency toward monotheism was in part a product of
the development of the ancient schools of philosophy.
Stoicism, Epicureanism, Cynicism, Pythagoreanism, and Neoplatonism,
probably the dominant traditions in the 2nd-4th centuries, all tended to
see a single divine force behind the multiplicity of classical polytheism.
2. In the Roman
period, philosophy tended to become more "practical" in its
considerations, concerned with ethical issues (how people should
live) and more drawn to mystical practice and , sometimes, magic and
downright chicanery.
a. At the same time, philosophy withdrew
more and more into the world of the elite, far from the concerns of the ordinary
people; it became a kind of "rich-person" religion
b. Philosophy was regarded as a serious
competitor to Christianity, the alternative to those educated people who
did not wish to accept Christian ideas.
E. The "Mystery" Religions
.1. Some cults in the classical world had
always been concerned with issues of initiation and means by which
individuals could either learn "secret" truths or perhaps attain
something like immortality. The best known of these was the
Eleusinian Mysteries, from near Athens.
2. In the Roman period mystery religions
flourished.
a. This was once explained as a result of an
inundation of the Roman Empire with "oriental" ideas, that is,
ideas from the Near East. But it is now thought that these were
more local ideas, perhaps the religious aspirations of the "lower
classes" of Roman society, although influences from outside the
Roman Empire are certain as well.
b. Among these religions were the cult of
the Egyptian gods (Isis, etc.), Cybele, and most of all the Persian
Mythras.
c. All the mystery religions seem to have
promised their devotees an identification with the god through
participation in some mysterion, a rite or ceremony, usually of
initiation, through which--in some way--the worshiper became one with
the god. Oftentimes, this ceremony brought the worshiper
protection or, even, immortality. The mysterion is
what, in a Christian context, would be called a sacrament.
3. The mystery cult did ask its devotees to
"join" the cult and to believe that benefit would be obtained as
a result of that. One could, of course, join more than one mystery
cult, since they were not exclusive (but rather part of the polytheistic
system).
F. Judaism
1. Judaism stood out, almost alone among
religions of the Roman period, in that it was exclusive--that is, it
called upon Jews to deny the existence of any other gods and worship one
God alone.
2. The Romans thought the Jews were peculiar
and their practices (such as circumcision) were bizarre, and Jews were occasionally
subject to ill-treatment, but --as long as the Jews accepted Roman
rule--they were normally regarded as a "traditional" religion
that should be left in peace.
3. The Jews rarely practiced sought to gain
new members outside their communities and this rendered them--in Roman
eyes--relatively harmless.
G. Christianity