How did ancient people cope with the overwhelming mysteries of the universe? This course uses ancient texts and archaeological evidence to explore the religious cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, from the earliest indications of human religious practices during prehistoric times to the conversion of the Roman Empire. You will learn about ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine, and more.
Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Take a deep dive into the ancient roots of our culture as you explore the religious history of the ancient Mediterranean world.
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Gloster from
How essential questions -- and approaches live on!
I cannot remember when I have enjoyed more "ah ha's" in a course in a long time!
As one who attempts to follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, I am fairly well acquainted with the New Testament, growing in my understanding of the fascinating books of the Old Testament but, however, had until this course had only a more cursory appreciation of other ancient religions of that part of the world.
I did know some things about them as an historian, but I didn't really appreciate them. And the distinction is important.
Professor Holland's approach is respectful and attempts to present each culture's beliefs -- as well as how those beliefs evolved over time -- in a matter-of-fact manner emphasizing how people of that time would have understood them.
When it comes to the Hebrew Bible and the matter of Jesus and the early Christian movement he admits that whether we moderns are "believers" or "church and synagogue goers" or not, we live in a milieu shaped by the Bible and in which few memories of those older religious forms continue to be even known.
I admit that his attempt to faithfully present the panoply of the ancient gods and goddesses of Egypt and Mesopotamia at times had my head reeling with the names of these multiple deities (and sub-deities), but as the lectures unfolded I better understood how this helped paint in fuller detail the world that the ancients lived in AND how they understood that world and their relationship to the realm of the divine or sacred.
In sum, the principal great lessons I have drawn from this course are these:
We continue to ponder the SAME essential questions as did the ancients, namely: 1) How did the world we are in -- as Professor Holland repeatedly expresses it, the "world as it is" -- come to be? and 2) What relationship, if any, do human beings have to this world and to the realm of the sacred and divine?
The ancients struggled with the perceived problem of cause and effect: 1) Since all effects have causes, and since "the gods" must be the ultimate "cause," how to explain what happens even to obviously good people? 2) How might we humans propitiate, plead with, and seek to avoid evil in this world (premature death, severe injury, plagues and famines) in our relationship to the divine/sacred realm? What is expected of us -- as a people and as individuals? (For a long time the answer to the last question was understood by all the ancient cultures as being more "the people" than individuals, and also that certain persons -- pharaohs, kings, priests, etc. -- were better positioned to intercede for "the people" than others.
If we're not careful, we "moderns" can slip into thinking that our ancestors (in time as well as in faith beliefs) were rather "primitive" and uninformed. This course helps us put such misleading -- and, frankly, unworthy -- forms of thinking aside. Rather, our ancestors were keen observers of "what happened": they understood the annual cycles of the year, they pondered the movement of the sun and moon and stars in the heavens, and they also knew intimately well how brief was the average lifespan of men and women.
So, why does this all exist? What is our place in it? Is there meaning to all of this, including to our lives? Or is it just random "noise."
Both because our brains are wired to find patterns and explanations and also because we WANT to believe that our brief lives DO mean something, a way to understand humanity's many answers to these essential questions is to study what religions through time have proposed as answers.
We yearn for certainty; yet there is little that is certain about the world, and NOTHING that is certain -- let alone really known -- about whether anything at all follows our lives on this planet.
A fascinating course, brilliantly told and woven together, and one that found me asking with new respect some very, very old questions!
Date published: 2024-07-25
Rated 5 out of
5
by
24ONR from
Excellent course
This course is a very thorough scholarly endeavor. It conveys a tremendous amount of material; I found the series on ancient Egypt, Israel and Rome particularly strong. The course does require a large commitment with respect to time and concentration but rewards its readers amply. I have read the negative reviews that have been posted, many of which concern his treatment of early Christianity. I thought Professor Holland addressed it fairly, although I do agree that his use of “Common Era” is tedious. Our convention of dating is rooted in Christianity. If you want to use a different convention – after the Hadj, after the French Revolution, after Pol Pot, etc. – feel free to do so. But it’s silly to use a Christian convention and pretend it is something different.
Date published: 2024-01-14
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Baubie89 from
Excellent overview from a knowledgeable professor
I bought this course on Instant Video several years ago and have watched the entire course several times. While I admit that it took me several lectures to get used to and appreciate the lecturer's speaking style, I am so glad that I did because I learned as much from this course as any of the dozens of other Great Courses I have watched over the years. Yes, his speaking style can be dry at times but so can his wit, which I very much appreciated. Please be aware that this is an older course, however, so don't buy expecting the latest research.
Date published: 2023-09-02
Rated 3 out of
5
by
EngineerinVA from
Plodding Comparative Religion
This course surveys the most important religions relevant to Western Civilization. These religions include Egyptian religion, Mesopotamian religions, Judaism, Greek and Roman religion, and ultimately the origins of Christianity. Dr. Holland examines the superstitious origins and development of each of these religions. He also compares common mythological stories in each of these religions such as a flood epic. In some respects, this is what used to be called “comparative religion.”
Dr. Holland is a methodical, perhaps plodding, lecturer. (The course has 48 lectures instead of the normal 24.) He is generally formal in style, even to the point of dressing in a jacket and tie. I do not recall seeing him smile at all. It did not seem to me that he interacted with his audience; rather, he seemed to be satisfied with transmitting the material.
This paragraph is a personal rant. If you are not interested in my personal opinion, please skip to the next paragraph. Dr. Holland spends a lecture on the quest for the historical Jesus, duplicating some of the material in the courses by Dr. Bart Ehrmann. Although I recognize this is a major scholarly endeavor, it seems to me to this is bad scholarship because it ignores the central question. Consider a quest into the historical Socrates that excludes philosophy (which cannot be proved historically) and instead asks whether he was right handed or left handed. What’s the point? Next to his philosophy, his handedness is immaterial. Without his philosophy, Socrates is not worth studying. Similarly, the better scholarly approach would be to present what the proponents contend *in their own terms*, what was the impact on society, and what were the objections of the opponents.
The course guide is average by The Great Courses (TGC) standards. It is written in outline format, which makes it more difficult to follow than paragraph format. There are only about 5 pages per lecture, which is well below the TGC average. The only graphic is a map of the Mediterranean world. However, the appendix includes extensive and useful timeline, glossary, biographical notes, and bibliography.
I used the video version of this course. There were few graphics that added anything of significance even when graphics, such as maps or pictures of artwork, would make the material more understandable. The audio version would be just as good.
The course was published in 2005.
Date published: 2023-08-29
Rated 5 out of
5
by
KLuck from
Extremely informative
Dr Holland is an excellent lecturer and makes what could be a rather dry subject enjoyable.
Date published: 2023-03-16
Rated 5 out of
5
by
OldWarrior from
Insightful
Excellent series of lectures. I learned much and have a greater appreciation for the world of the past that has shaped my thinking today.
Date published: 2023-02-04
Rated 2 out of
5
by
xxKYLORDxx from
Two Stars For Virtue Signaling
I'll give a bad review for any professor/lecturer who uses the virtue signaling dating semantics of BCE/CE instead of the traditional BC/AD. Our calendar is a fundamentally religious one. Changing the semantics doesn't change the fundamental structure of it. It's a religious calendar regardless. Otherwise, aside from lacking the description of sources, this was a decent course. --An Atheist who appreciates traditions.
Date published: 2022-12-13
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Gatestamp from
Apt title
I just bought but have gotten guide book Looks like a fantastic course Right up my alley!!
Date published: 2022-11-25
Overview
About
Dr. Glenn S. Holland is the Bishop James Thoburn Professor of Religious Studies at Allegheny College. He earned his B.A. from Stanford University, his M.A. in Theology from the University of Oxford, and his Ph.D. in the Bible and New Testament Studies from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Professor Holland is the recipient of several honors and awards, including the Thoburn Chair in Religious Studies in 1992, and the Divisional Professorship in Humanities at Allegheny College in 2003. Professor Holland wrote and edited several books, including Philodemus and the New Testament World and Divine Irony, a study of irony as the adoption of the divine perspectives on events in the human world. Professor Holland is a contributor and assistant editor for the award-winning journal Common Knowledge.
01: Talking About Ancient Religious Cultures
The lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea provide the basis for most religious beliefs and practices in the modern Western world. Professor Holland previews the major features of the course, which will use stories as a primary means to gain insight into the religious cultures of the region.
33 min
02: What is Religion?
What is religion? Our working definition includes the idea of the sacred, the systematic unity of beliefs and practices, and the community created through those common beliefs and practices.
30 min
03: Early Prehistoric Religion
This lecture explores the earliest forms of human religious expression by examining the material culture of the Old and Middle Stone Ages. The evidence shows a desire for harmony and equilibrium among human beings, and between human beings and the spiritual world.
30 min
04: Prehistoric Religion—The Neolithic Era
We move on to the great revolution in the human way of life represented by the New Stone Age, or Neolithic era, and the acceleration of cultural change that ultimately resulted in the beginnings of the first great civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean world: Egypt and Mesopotamia.
30 min
05: Egypt—A Unique Religious Culture
This lecture considers the beginnings of Egyptian civilization and some of its typical depictions of the gods. All of Egyptian religion and its stories refer either directly or indirectly to the three primary realities of life in ancient Egypt: the sun, the Nile, and the divine pharaoh.
30 min
06: Egyptian Creation Stories and Their Meaning
There are four means of creation in Mediterranean mythic cosmogonies: creation by making, creation by combat, creation through sexual generation, and creation by word. We study Egyptian creation stories to learn what they tell us about the relationships among gods, humanity, and the cosmos.
30 min
07: The Egyptian Pantheon
The Egyptian pantheon may be divided into gods that represent natural phenomena, regional gods, funerary gods, and gods identified with professions. There was inevitable overlap in association and function among the gods, as evidenced by the many solar deities.
31 min
08: Egyptian Myths of Kingship
The pharaoh was at the center of Egyptian religious culture. He was responsible for establishing divine order and justice, enabling the proper functioning of the human and divine worlds. His legitimacy and authority were supported by the myth of the contest between Horus and Seth.
30 min
09: Egyptian Myths of the Underworld
The Egyptians show more concern with preparation for the afterlife than any other ancient civilization known to us. We examine the range of Egyptian beliefs and practices related to death, especially the spiritual and physical preparation for the dead to enter the realm of Osiris.
30 min
10: Egypt—The Power of Goddesses
Goddesses play an important role in Egyptian creation mythology, both as personifications of the cosmic elements and as mothers to new generations of gods. As a group, the Egyptian goddesses display strength, initiative, cleverness, and other virtues traditionally associated with women.
30 min
11: Egypt—Religion in Everyday Life
We study official and popular religious practices in ancient Egypt. Official daily rituals included washing, dressing, and "feeding" the cult statue of the temple. Popular religion focused on magic and rituals, including the use of spells and amulets, and attempts to see the future.
30 min
12: Egypt—The Beginning of Wisdom
Proverbial wisdom is part of the cultural heritage of all peoples throughout history. We conclude our examination of Egyptian religious culture with a discussion of its literature of ethical instruction, which provides our earliest example of the Mediterranean world's wisdom tradition.
30 min
13: Mesopotamia—The Land Between the Rivers
We begin our study of the religious beliefs and practices of Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The region was home to a succession of related but distinct civilizations that shared a common religious culture, albeit one that was constantly evolving through the centuries.
30 min
14: Mesopotamia—Stories of Creation
Mesopotamian gods are like overlords in a political hierarchy, but with divine authority and power. This lecture reviews the gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon and discusses two stories, Enuma Elish and the myth of Adapa, that describe the origins of all things and the human situation.
31 min
15: Mesopotamia—Inanna the Goddess
The Mesopotamian fertility goddess was worshiped in Sumer as Inanna and later in Babylon as Ishtar. We consider the different attributes, titles, and powers that made her the most important and powerful goddess in the Mesopotamian pantheon.
30 min
16: Mesopotamia—Gilgamesh the King
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest surviving epic poem. This lecture discusses the first part of this haunting masterpiece, which narrates the adventures of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, two heroes who set out on a long journey to slay Humbaba, a monster of the wilderness.
30 min
17: Mesopotamia—The Search for Eternal Life
We continue our discussion of The Epic of Gilgamesh by reviewing the two heroes' encounter with Ishtar, which results in Enkidu's death and Gilgamesh's quest for eternal life. The quest has many parallels in the wisdom literature we have already considered.
30 min
18: Mesopotamia—The Great Flood
The story of Ut-napishtim and the primeval flood in The Epic of Gilgamesh has clear parallels with the story of another Mesopotamian hero, Atrahasis, and the biblical story of Noah. The differences reflect a fundamental incongruity between Mesopotamian and Israelite conceptions of the divine.
31 min
19: Ancient Concepts of the Divine
This lecture looks at the different concepts of the divine that lie behind polytheism (belief in many gods), henotheism (belief and trust in one chief god among the many gods that exist), and monotheism (belief and trust in the one and only God who exists).
32 min
20: The Gods of Syria-Palestine
We begin our study of Syria-Palestine, whose chief god was 'El, creator of all things. His son Ba'al, god of storms and fertility, recalls several Mesopotamian myths. The worship of the Lord in Israel was both different from and consistent with other Syro-Palestinian religious traditions.
30 min
21: Israel's Ancestral History
The stories about Israel's ancestors in Genesis reflect the life of nomadic herders in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. We examine these stories and the development of Israelite religious culture in the aftermath of the Exodus, which established a new relationship between the Lord and Israel.
30 min
22: Israel's National History
When the Israelites settled in Palestine, their way of life changed profoundly, a change reflected in their religious culture, as Ba'al became a rival to the Lord. We review Israel's history primarily in terms of its evolving understanding of its covenantal obligations to the Lord as the God of Israel.
31 min
23: Prophecy in the Ancient Near East
A significant factor in the development of religious culture in Israel during the monarchy was the independent religious voice of prophecy. We consider prophecy as a cross-cultural phenomenon and how it resembles other methods of divining the will of the gods or of foreseeing the future.
29 min
24: Early Prophecy in Israel
Scholars have identified three types of prophecy in ancient Israel: guild prophecy carried out by groups under a leader; official prophecy carried out through the royal court or the cult; and independent prophecy carried out by prophets who speak on the Lord's behalf without official sanction.
30 min
25: Classical Israelite Prophecy
Continuing our discussion of prophecy, we look at the prophetic messages and careers of some of the great prophets of Israel, those usually referred to as the "writing prophets" because they have biblical books of prophetic oracles named after them.
30 min
26: Israel's Great Crisis
This lecture examines the religious crisis that surrounded the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of many of its people to Babylon. We see how the prophets made sense of this disaster, and in doing so, reaffirmed the Lord's faithfulness and loving concern for his people.
31 min
27: Syria-Palestine—The Problem of Evil
Polytheistic and henotheistic religions can blame evil on conflicts between gods, but monotheistic religions must reconcile belief in an all-powerful and morally perfect God with the existence of evil. We look at two responses to the problem of evil: the book of Job and apocalyptic literature.
30 min
28: Early Aegean Civilizations
We begin our discussion of the civilizations around the Aegean Sea, examining Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations and their religious cultures. The nature of Minoan civilization is deeply mysterious; Mycenaean civilization is the historical setting for events in the Iliad and Odyssey.
30 min
29: Religious Culture in the Iliad and the Odyssey
The Dark Age following the Mycenaean era saw a drastic decrease in the scale and quality of life in Greece. Writing disappeared, and memories of the Mycenaean era were preserved in oral stories of gods and heroes, most notably in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
30 min
30: Religious Culture in Archaic Greece
This lecture covers the religious culture of the Archaic Age, a period of robust growth and development that established the basis for Classical Greek culture. Two poetic works, the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod's Theogony, give insight into prevailing beliefs and attitudes towards the gods in the Archaic Age.
31 min
31: Greece—How Things Came to Be
The Greek story of creation in Hesiod's Theogony resembles myths from Egypt and Mesopotamia. Similarly, the Greek story of the flood has many points of contact with the Mesopotamian stories of Atrahasis and Ut-napishtim, as well as with the biblical story of Noah.
30 min
32: Greece—The Goddess
Although goddesses in polytheistic religious cultures often have associations with fertility, most of them develop beyond this primary identity. This is the case in Greece, where goddesses represent a range of female activities. We look at three: Athena, Demeter, and Aphrodite.
30 min
33: The Classical Era in Greece
The Classical Era in ancient Greece fell between the Persian wars and the death of Alexander the Great, when Greek city-states, especially Athens, achieved a remarkable political and cultural synthesis. Greek philosophy from the period saw human reason as a part of divine nature and pursued the virtuous life based on knowledge of the good.
30 min
34: Greece—Philosophy as Religion
During the Classical Era many of the elite rejected mythology as unworthy portrayals of the gods, and turned to philosophy as an alternative. We look at philosophy as a means of gaining insight into the divine world and bringing human behavior in line with the divine will.
32 min
35: Religious Culture in the Hellenistic World
The conquests of Alexander the Great were accompanied by the growth of Hellenistic culture, as key elements of Classical Greek culture were imposed on the subject nations. Religious synthesis arose when gods, rituals, and mythology of one religious culture were combined with those of another.
30 min
36: Mystery Religions in the Hellenistic World
The Hellenistic Era saw a return to the worship of earth-based gods by groups practicing secret rituals. The gods of these "mystery religions" were often fertility deities whose myths were reinterpreted as stories of death and rebirth. We look at these cults as expressions of religious yearnings of the period.
30 min
37: Mystery Religions from the East
Apuleius's novel The Golden Ass provides information about two mystery religions: the cult of the Syrian goddess and the mysteries of Isis. The Syrian goddess resembles the Great Mother worshiped in Asia Minor, while Isis came the closest of any ancient god to being the focus of a worldwide religion.
31 min
38: Roman Religious Culture Before the Empire
We turn to the religions of ancient Rome by considering its religious culture in the centuries before the beginning of the Roman Empire. The Romans believed the cosmos was suffused with spiritual power they could perceive in groups, places, activities, and the objects of everyday life.
33 min
39: Rome—Saviors and Divine Men
Augustus Caesar was accorded divine honors in his lifetime, reflecting the era's need for "savior" figures—gods or humans with the spiritual power to aid suppliants. Another sort of savior was the "divine man," endowed with divine power manifested in wisdom and miraculous works.
31 min
40: Rome—Divination, Astrology, and Magic
This lecture looks at three strategies for dealing with the forces of fate: divination was used for discerning the will of the gods in a given situation and gauging how to please them; astrology provided insight into divine intentions; and magic was used for healing, love charms, cursing, and thwarting curses.
31 min
41: Rome—Critics and Charlatans
We consider philosophical critiques of Greco-Roman religious traditions. These include attacks on religious beliefs as either unworthy of the true nature of the gods or inconsistent with worldly reality, and criticism of religious people as hypocritical con artists or gullible fools.
31 min
42: Jesus of Nazareth as a Figure in History
In this lecture, we start with the hypothesis that Jesus believed he was called to reform the Judaism of his time. This idea is tested and supplemented with widely accepted historical data about Jesus. The result is a theory of Jesus' intentions consistent with his standing as a unique religious thinker.
31 min
43: Creating Jesus Communities
The Jesus movement began as a sectarian group within Judaism, with its own rituals and prayers. We discuss the movement's growth and development as a nonconforming religious community in the early Roman Empire, and the break with Judaism that left it open to persecution by Roman authorities.
31 min
44: Living and Dying for the God(s)
The idea that death is sometimes preferable to life has a strong grounding in the Greek religious and philosophical tradition. We discuss the idea of martyrdom, and the idea that a person's philosophical or religious convictions are best demonstrated by a fitting death.
30 min
45: Women's Religious Roles in the Early Empire
We discuss women's participation in Roman, Jewish, and Christian religious cultures, which included both domestic and official duties. For example, the Vestal Virgins performed priestly duties for the Roman state, and early Christian women served as congregational patrons and missionaries.
31 min
46: The Jesus Movement in the Greco-Roman World
Responses to a series of crises in the late 1st century shaped the New Testament and other works of the Jesus movement. We discuss reactions to the Jesus movement among Roman elites, and the movement's attempts to explain its doctrines in philosophical terms.
33 min
47: The Death and Rebirth of the Old Gods
Christianity steadily gained strength in Roman society from the late 2nd century onward. This lecture considers how the polytheistic religious heritage of the ancient Mediterranean world was overcome by a triumphant Christianity, and to some extent, synthesized into it.
30 min
48: Conclusion—Persisting Ideas and Yearnings
In this final lecture, Professor Holland reviews the major themes of the course and discusses some of the enduring ideas characteristic of ancient Mediterranean religious culture that still exert an influence on religious thinking in the West today.
31 min
