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.

Topics Covered:

• 1: Talking About Ancient Religious Cultures
• 2: What is Religion?
• 3: Early Prehistoric Religion
• 4: Prehistoric Religion—The Neolithic Era
• 5: Egypt—A Unique Religious Culture
• 6: Egyptian Creation Stories and Their Meaning
• 7: The Egyptian Pantheon
• 8: Egyptian Myths of Kingship
• 9: 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