Mimus Religionis, Mimicry, and Deviance: Late Antique Polemic against Religious Others
In: Religious Polemics and Encounters in Late AntiquitySearch for other papers by Maijastina Kahlos in
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Abstract
In his polemic against Graeco-Roman religions, Lactantius argues that they cannot be real religiones because there can be no religio wherever cult images are involved. Religio consists of divine things and there is nothing divine except in heavenly things. Thus, Lactantius asserts, cult images are without religio because there can be nothing heavenly in images made from earth. Pagan cults with images were a mere mimicry of religio: non religio in simulacris, sed mimus religionis est (Lactantius, Institutiones divinae 2.18.3). In this paper, I discuss the late antique Christian polemic against Graeco-Roman religions (‘paganism’) and especially Christian writers’ argumentation in which Graeco-Roman religions were labelled as a distortion of the real religion. In their criticism, Christian apologists employed the Roman concept of superstitio. I show how they not only introduced new dimensions into the distinction between religio and superstitio, but also echoed some of the traditional Roman conventions that characterized superstitio as the perversion, forgery, or caricature of the proper religio. The main focus is on Lactantius’ discussion of the cults with and without sacred images but I also analyse Augustine’s views on ‘pagan’ distortions, and widen the discussion on a few fourth- and fifth-century writers (Epiphanius of Salamis and Quodvultdeus) who in their polemic against ‘heresies’ use the metaphor of concubines to describe what they regard as false religion. The true religion is depicted as the lawful wife.