Welcome to the Roman Religious Experience, a project spearheaded by Dr. Steven Green (formerly Classics, University of Leeds) in conjunction with his students on the module ‘Living the Religious Experience at Rome’.
Roman religion is about action: Romans were very strict about performing their rituals in the correct manner. But Roman religion is equally about thought: with no orthodox religious text to which to refer, each Roman had to make up his/her own mind as to the possible meaning behind religious acts, amidst a variety of (often wacky) interpretations that had been generated through the years.
My students are encouraged to embrace both the ‘strict acting’ and ‘free thinking’ aspects of the Roman religious experience. As part of the assessment for this module, students are given a specific year, AD 10, and a choice of Roman festivals. In groups of two or three, they are invited to construct an illustrated wiki in which they take on the persona of a contemporary religious participant by describing both the proceedings of their chosen festival as well as their own feelings and viewpoints about it.
This website, incorporating the best of the wikis produced by the students, is designed to act as an ever-growing online educational resource. Other resources tend to treat Roman religion in a more abstract and less personalised manner. We hope you enjoy our research-informed attempts to bring the diversity of the Roman religious experience to life!
Narratives for the Lupercalia, Megalensia, October Horse, and Vestalia have now been uploaded!
For more detail about the rationale for the project and the pedagogical benefits for students, click here.
The project is also very pleased to acknowledge the editorial and technical expertise of Dr. Eleanor OKell.
Steve Green, firstname.lastname@example.org (12.8.14)