Take a deep dive into the ancient roots of our culture as you explore the religious history of the ancient Mediterranean world.
Overview
Syllabus
- By This Professor
- 01: Talking About Ancient Religious Cultures
- 02: What is Religion?
- 03: Early Prehistoric Religion
- 04: Prehistoric Religion—The Neolithic Era
- 05: Egypt—A Unique Religious Culture
- 06: Egyptian Creation Stories and Their Meaning
- 07: The Egyptian Pantheon
- 08: Egyptian Myths of Kingship
- 09: Egyptian Myths of the Underworld
- 10: Egypt—The Power of Goddesses
- 11: Egypt—Religion in Everyday Life
- 12: Egypt—The Beginning of Wisdom
- 13: Mesopotamia—The Land Between the Rivers
- 14: Mesopotamia—Stories of Creation
- 15: Mesopotamia—Inanna the Goddess
- 16: Mesopotamia—Gilgamesh the King
- 17: Mesopotamia—The Search for Eternal Life
- 18: Mesopotamia—The Great Flood
- 19: Ancient Concepts of the Divine
- 20: The Gods of Syria-Palestine
- 21: Israel's Ancestral History
- 22: Israel's National History
- 23: Prophecy in the Ancient Near East
- 24: Early Prophecy in Israel
- 25: Classical Israelite Prophecy
- 26: Israel's Great Crisis
- 27: Syria-Palestine—The Problem of Evil
- 28: Early Aegean Civilizations
- 29: Religious Culture in the Iliad and the Odyssey
- 30: Religious Culture in Archaic Greece
- 31: Greece—How Things Came to Be
- 32: Greece—The Goddess
- 33: The Classical Era in Greece
- 34: Greece—Philosophy as Religion
- 35: Religious Culture in the Hellenistic World
- 36: Mystery Religions in the Hellenistic World
- 37: Mystery Religions from the East
- 38: Roman Religious Culture Before the Empire
- 39: Rome—Saviors and Divine Men
- 40: Rome—Divination, Astrology, and Magic
- 41: Rome—Critics and Charlatans
- 42: Jesus of Nazareth as a Figure in History
- 43: Creating Jesus Communities
- 44: Living and Dying for the God(s)
- 45: Women's Religious Roles in the Early Empire
- 46: The Jesus Movement in the Greco-Roman World
- 47: The Death and Rebirth of the Old Gods
- 48: Conclusion—Persisting Ideas and Yearnings
Taught by
Glenn S. Holland, Ph.D.
