Conceptualizing Angeloi in the Roman Empire. by Rangar Cline. (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 172.) Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011
Numen 60 (2013) 135–154 brill.com/nu Ancient Angels: Conceptualizing Angeloi in the Roman Empire. By Rangar Cline. (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 172.) Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011. xviii + 181 pp. ISBN 978–9004194533 (hbk.) The theme of the book is veneration of angels in religions in late antiquity (ca. 150–ca. 450 c.e.). Rangar Cline consults a wealth of archaeological and lit- erary evidence and shows that there was a shared terminology for angels in the Roman Empire, which implies that the term angelos was used across religions. Angeloi designate intermediate beings, beings that were believed to exist between gods and humans. Traditionally, they were thought to be present at springs, wells, and fountains, and they could be contacted by means of rituals, amulets, and invocations. The veneration of these beings took diffferent forms in diffferent regions and cultural contexts. The book has a preface, six chapters, and a conclusion, and includes pic- tures. In chapter one (“Introduction: The Words of Angels”), Cline defijines angels and gives a survey of the pagan-Christian discourse on them by means of the writings of Origen of Alexandria and Augustine of Hippo. Cline suggests that “the prominence of angeli in early Christianity is due to the success of early Christian authorities in defijining a system of orthodox Christian beliefs about, and attitudes towards, angeli that were distinct from non-Christian, and other Christian, beliefs about such beings” (p. 2). In addition to the term ange- los, Cline also presents a critical discussion of the use of the terms “Hellenism,” “monotheism,” and “polytheism.” Cline’s study of angels builds on Glenn Bow- ersock’s approach to Hellenism and Greek language in late antiquity: Bower- sock saw Hellenism as a possibility to give local expressions a more eloquent and cosmopolitan form.
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