Religion in Roman Egypt

by David Frankfurter

This exploration of cultural resilience examines the complex fate of classical Egyptian religion during the centuries from the period when Christianity first made its appearance in Egypt to when it became the region's dominant religion (roughly 100 to 600 C.E. Taking into account the full range of witnesses to continuing native piety--from papyri and saints' lives to archaeology and terracotta figurines--and drawing on anthropological studies of folk religion, David Frankfurter argues that the religion of Pharonic Egypt did not die out as early as has been supposed but was instead relegated from political centers to village and home, where it continued a vigorous existence for centuries.



In analyzing the fate of the Egyptian oracle and of the priesthoods, the function of magical texts, and the dynamics of domestic cults, Frankfurter describes how an ancient culture maintained itself while also being transformed through influences such as Hellenism, Roman government, and Christian dominance. Recognizing the special characteristics of Egypt, which differentiated it from the other Mediterranean cultures that were undergoing simultaneous social and political changes, he departs from the traditional "decline of paganism/triumph of Christianity" model most often used to describe the Roman period. By revealing late Egyptian religion in its Egyptian historical context, he moves us away from scenarios of Christian triumph and shows us how long and how energetically pagan worship survived.

Genres: History, Religion, Egypt, Egyptology, Roman History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1998

Reviews

[Kim Matheson · Rating 4 out of 5]

* Great scholarship, works almost entirely from primary texts
* VERY compact writing style --> lots of information, but occasionally unclear
* Aware of relationships and interplay in developments; resists the temptation to over-simplify the complexity

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book many years ago and have revisited it often. I finally decided to reread it. This is an excellent, readable book with an important thesis: the transition from polytheism to Christianity was not abrupt but rather a transformation of indigenous religious practice to a new, equally complex and conflicted religious practice. The book is not without its issues, as has been noted by many prominent scholars. These weaknesses, which are grounded in errant use of source material, do not detract from the overall thesis which is cogently argued.

[Gordon Goodwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a spectacular and wide ranging exploration of the resilience of traditional Egyptian religions during the Rome period. I particularly appreciated the effort to take religion out of the temples and into how it was experienced/negotiated by the people themselves. I'm not sure his knowledge of Egyptian Christianity is on par with his impressive command of Egyptian paganism, but again cannot suggest this book highly enough.

[David A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good exposition of how you can rely on primary sources, but still get things wrong. The writer falls into the trap of being too credible when he considers a set of primary sources that have clear view points.

[DAJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

A polemical work countering the old but still widespread assumption that Egyptian religion became corrupted by Greco-Roman influence and then simply died out when Christianity seemed to offer something better. It also takes issue with Roger Bagnall's Egypt in Late Antiquity, which implies that Egyptian religion stopped being practiced because its temples ran out of funds, a process that began even before Christianity made inroads in Egypt. Although he doesn't dispute that conclusion, Frankfurter points out that religion is more than just temple worship and argues that religious practices continued long after many priesthoods had run out of money.

Frankfurter focuses on local society in villages and midsize towns. Because he doesn't study Christianity in Egypt per se and barely discusses the more Hellenized and Christianized populace in major cities like Alexandria, one scholarly reviewer suggested the book would better have been called "Traditional Local Religion in Roman Egypt". Frankfurter says popular religious traditions were highly durable and that in order to succeed, Christianity had to adapt to meet the same popular needs that native religion had met. It generally wasn't a conscious decision; there was only so much that Christianity could change about the local culture. Temple priests became community magicians before being supplanted by Christian holy men who offered a similar range of services. Ancient gods were gradually and haphazardly replaced in spells by Jesus and the angels. Traditional deities, once thought of as largely beneficent but ultimately unpredictable, were thrown decisively into the age-old category of "demon", whereupon Christian saints took over their role as patrons of local shrines. It's a vivid religious landscape.

Unfortunately, it's also massively flawed, and the more I read of other scholars' work on the subject, the worse it looks. Frankfurter's main sources are biographies of saints (hagiographies) that tell stories about mobs of monks destroying temples and having dramatic confrontations with local pagans. These sources are often very unreliable, and Frankfurter not only fails to account for their biases but sometimes interprets them to say things they don't in support of his argument. His book was sometimes lauded when it came out, but scholarly opinion since then seems to grow ever more scathing. Alan Cameron's essay in Egypt in the Byzantine World and the seventh chapter of Following Osiris examine Frankfurter's evidence much more carefully.

More reliable evidence shows that temples were not usually shut down by force, and it was very rare for a temple to be sacked and converted into a church all at once. This point is made in Philae and the End of Ancient Egyptian Religion, which uses Philae and Aswan as a case study for Egypt, and in two collections of studies that examine the Roman Empire in general: From Temple to Church and especially The Archaeology of Late Antique 'Paganism'. Isis on the Nile shows that the Hellenization of Egyptian religion was not nearly as superficial as Frankfurter claims, though the evidence there strengthens his broader point about the adaptability of tradition.

The book does contain some valuable nuggets of insight, like the general idea that Christianity adapted to meet local needs, or the relationship between country magicians and the urbanized populace of Egypt or the Roman Empire as a whole. Its flaws mean it shouldn't be read on its own, only in combination with more reliable studies of the same topic.