Statues, temples, altars: divine images and their material contexts in Imperial and Late Antique learned writing about religion (A03)

• Subject Area: Religious Studies and Jewish Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 244798977

The subproject studies how divine statues and their material contexts were represented and treated in the imperial and late antique learned discourse about religion. It inquires into interpretations and valuations of statues, temples and altars against the background of normative concepts of ‘true’ or ‘learned’ religion. Moreover, it assesses the roles of discursive representations of these elements in delimiting and mapping the religious as a distinct socio-cultural domain. It also focusses the reconstruction of the shared repertoires of patterns of thought, arguments, and authoritative texts, on which intellectuals of different religious affiliation draw.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1136: Education and Religion in Cultures of the Mediterranean and Its Environment from Ancient to Medieval Times and to the Classical Islam
• Applicant Institution: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
• Project Head: Professorin Dr. Ilinca Ioana Tanaseanu-Döbler