There has been a significant shift in the understanding of ‘religion’ in the Roman Empire; indeed what is understood by ‘a religion’ in the modern world was quite alien in the ancient world. Martin Henig speaks of Celtic and Roman religion as “separate though related systems”. His insights, not least in the context of his contributions to the Uley Excavation Report are valuable. Mary Beard, John North and Simon Price write of “Religions of Rome”, rather than of Roman Religion. That takes the thinking forward in a very helpful way. Their first volume offers a history of religions of Rome. The second source book provides key texts that complement the history.
Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome Volume 1, A History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome Volume 2, A Sourcebook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Guy de la Bédoyère brings together some of these approaches in a popular account of religion in Roman Britain.
Bédoyère, Guy de la. Gods with Thunderbolts: Religion in Roman Britain. Tempus Series. Stroud: History Press Limited, 2007.
Of particular interest in our study of the Uley tablets is the work of Richard Gordon, Jörg Rüpke and others who speak of “lived ancient religion” and “lived religion in antiquity”.
Rüpke, Jörg. On Roman Religion: Lived Religion and the Individual in Ancient Rome. In On Roman Religion. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2016.
In two significant articles Richard Gordon draws on these insights in studying curse tablets.
Gordon, Richard. ‘Gods, Guilt and Suffering: Psychological Aspects of Cursing in the North-West Provinces of the Roman Empire’. Acta Classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debreceniensis XLIX (2013) 255–81.
This approach is taken forward by Stuart McKie’s key work. His focus is very much more on what is being done, on the ritual.
McKie, Stuart. Living and Cursing in the Roman West: Curse Tablets and Society. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.
I have gone on to make connections between the ‘Lived Ancient Religion’ approach and the insights of “Ordinary Theology” as explored by Jeff Astley and Tania ap Sîon.
Astley, Jeff. Ordinary Theology: Looking, Listening and Learning in Theology. Farnham: Ashgate, 2002.
Siôn, Tania ap. ‘Prayers from the Inner City: Listening to the Prayer Board in Southwark Cathedral’. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion 26 (2015) 99–119.
In Sacred Britannia, Miranda Aldhouse-Green speaks not so much of Romano-Celtic religion, but rather of ‘the Gods and Rituals of Roman Britain’.
Aldhouse-Green, Miranda. Sacred Britannia: The Gods and Rituals of Roman Britain. London: Thames & Hudson, 2018.