Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World

By: Glenn S. Holland, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Glenn S. Holland

Step back to a time when the mysteries of the universe could seem overwhelming. Cycles of nature kept predictable time with the sun, the moon, and the stars, yet crops failed, disease struck, storms ravaged, and empires fell without warning. In the region surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, people responded to such tumult with a rich variety of religious beliefs.

From these beliefs, we get some of Western civilization's most powerful texts: the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, the Hebrew Bible, the Greek epics of Homer, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and the New Testament, among many others. Composed largely of stories of human interaction with the divine, these narratives gave ordinary people a window into the unfathomable realm of the sacred.

Archaeological remains show that ancient peoples also responded with a complex array of religious rituals, and their temples, cultic statues, funerary goods, and household devotional items are among the world's greatest cultural treasures.

Using such textual and archaeological evidence, these 48 marvelous lectures explore the religious cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, from the earliest indications of human religious practices during prehistoric times to the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity in the 4th century of the Common Era.

You'll discover the religious traditions of a wide range of civilizations, including the ancient kingdom of Egypt; ancient Mesopotamia; ancient Syria-Palestine, including Israel and Judah; Minoan civilization on the island of Crete and the successive civilizations of the Greek mainland; and the city of Rome, whose empire dominated the entire Mediterranean world at the end of the ancient era.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2005 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2005 The Great Courses

Solid Overview of Ancient Mediterranean Religion

Organized and well presented overview of Ancient Mediterranean religion. The only missing piece was ancient Iranian religion especially Zorasterianism.

This was amazing!

This was the perhaps the best audio book I have ever listened to. It was full of information I had never known or considered before. By the way, if this says Bernadette Perkins or Holly Simon wrote this, they are wrong.

Fair...Not Good.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

In general I would have to say yes.

Would you be willing to try another book from The Great Courses? Why or why not?

I have read/listened to several Great Courses lectures in the past, while this was certainly not the best, I have been very pleased in the past.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The tempo was normally fine, although Dr. Holland did overly repeat himself at times, which caused the tempo to lag.

Was Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World worth the listening time?

Yes. But it is not the most academically credible examination of the subject matter currently available.

Any additional comments?

This is not a lecture series in comparative religious studies. Whether or not it was Dr. Holland's intent, much of his treatment of ancient Hebrew and early Christian religious practices have more in common with Christian apologetics than a thoroughly credible examination of the known and demonstrable traditions/dogma of these rather well-known religions. This pro-Christian bias, while general subtle, is pervasive in the relevant chapters in which they are discussed. There was little to know examination of Hittite or Syro-Hittite states whose own religious practices are a continuing source of inquiry for modern historians. If I was to reconfigure the course's content, I would leave out a significant portion (say half) of the discussion on ancient Judaism and early Christianity and replace it with Hittite, Syro-Hittite, Canaanite (Phoenician) as well as the religion of the Carthaginians- which arose from largely from the earlier Canaanite tradition. Holland's treatment/analysis of other religious traditions is much more academically credible and sticking with the same degree of detachment throughout the entire course would have served him well. To be fair, this course is not without some redeeming qualities and many may find it useful, but don't expect to be awed by Holland or his analysis of the topic.

Excellent overview

This lecture provides a brief yet detailed overview of religion in the ancient Mediterranean region. Professor Holland is easy to listen to and clearly an authority in his field. In addition to an overview, this lecture provides interesting comparisons between these important religions, which to me brought it to five stars.

Listened to it twice

One of my favorite lectures in the Great Courses series. There's so much material in these lectures! Get ready to bookmark!

mediocre

many better courses out there. not worth listening to again unless you want this exact content.

Some good moments, but ultimately disappointing.

This course makes some attempt to give a comparative perspective on several of the religions of the ancient Mediterranean. The religions covered are mentioned in the publisher's summary, and if you know very little about the religions covered, you will no doubt learn something about each, as I did. However, some major mediterranean religions are left out, most notably Phoenician/Carthaginian religion; also absent is any treatment of Celtic or Iberian peoples' beliefs. Only the briefest mention of the Etruscans as well.

This is especially grievous in light of the large amount of time spent on Judaism and Christianity; these are no doubt Ancient Mediterranean religions, and thus worthy of some coverage, but they -- Christianity especially -- are covered in more detail than for instance the beliefs of classical Greece; this is unfortunate given that Christianity and Judaism are covered in-depth by so many other Great courses lectures, and are bound to be more familiar to most listeners besides.

There is also very little time devoted to the rituals and actual practice involved in each religion, and too much spent on discussing stories told in the context of ancient religion that are not actually religious documents, such as the various ancient epics. As much as I love the Epic of Gilgamesh, this doesn't seem like the place for a close reading of it; more information about each of the ancient Mesopotamian gods would have filled that time better.

However, if you know very little about ancient Mediterranean, this wouldn't be a bad place to start. And if you are primarily interested Christianity, this course would be a great place to learn about the context that gave rise to it. I definitely learned many things from this course, but I can't help feeling that I could have learned a lot more.

Interesting, but odd ending

This is a pretty fascinating survey of many ancient Mediterranean religions beginning in prehistory/Stone Ages, and ending with the generally Christian Mediterranean under the Byzantines. No religion is treated exhaustively and much effort is devoted to comparing the similarities and difference in different religions. The book is a gold mine of interesting nuggets on early-Med religious culture and heritage. Examining the "God of Israel" in the historical/political context also seemed fascinating.

Main complaints are:
1) This professor talks SLOWLY (I often had the book at 1.7x speed, and it sounded like a normal conversation). He is also repetitive, which is often useful with unfamiliar names, but more generally just compounds with the SLOW to be frustrating. Also, his jokes are pretty bad. lol

2) Holland's treatment of Christianity is pretty weird. I've got a degree in classical studies, my partner has a PhD in it... neither of us have ever heard someone refer to early Christianity as "the Jesus movement", as Holland inexplicably and painfully does for years. There is also an entire lecture in the series devoted to explaining how none of the gospels should be used to account for a historical reading of Jesus--before Holland then uses the gospels to make historical claims about Jesus. Finally, the treatment of Christianity is even stranger seeing as he repeatedly talks about the bias of sources when discussing Christian history/myth, when he had earlier (for every other religion) used equally-biased, often nationalized mythic stories. The pagan stories are treated as inherently valuable for learning about the cultures. Their bias is almost-never mentioned. But, Christian writings (or writings about Christians) are treated entirely differently. Odd.

points deducted for abysmal pronunciation

great, except the truly awful pronunciation of proper nouns that pervades the whole thing. "Ba'al" pronounced like "Bale" and "Plebeians" pronounced "Publians".. sometimes it's so mangled you can't actually tell what he's talking about

it all comes back to oneself.

the professor had a lot of great historical knowledge of the various people groups, however, his summarization sounds a lot like the various philosphers in history that never really come to a conclusion on their ideas or ideals. he just makes a giant loop of ideas originating from the center of self.