This volume investigates the complex and diverse developments in the
religious cultures of Greek cities after the classical age. An
international team of scholars considers the continuities of traditional
Greek religious practices, and seeks to understand the impact of new
influences on those practices, notably the deeper engagement with
Judaism and how the emergence of Christianity redefined polis religion.
The essays illustrate the inadequacy of 'decline' as a model for
understanding Greek religion, exploring how dynamic change in religious
life corresponded to the transformations in the Greek city.
The
volume explores how the citizens of the Greek city after the classical
age used religion to construct their cultural identities and political
experiences and how many of the features of traditional polis religion
survived into and shaped the religious mentalities of the Christian era.