This period starts to see a fundamental shift in how men see themselves. Religious changes both reflect and cause this.
For much of this period the “robust edifice of classical life” still dwarfs the new mood – the “humble men in […] little conventicles” are obscure and in the Greek world there is even a second century revival of traditional oracle sites. Nevertheless, the ground is being prepared for the burgeoning of the Christian church as the public emergencies of the 240s take hold.
The traditional religion is summarised as consisting of an unknowable supreme god, surrounded by a court of lesser gods – the classic Olympian gods familiar from toga- wearing statues.
These lesser gods acted as intermediaries to the supreme god and it was these to whom people made offerings and requests. They took a personal interest in individuals and were often associated with particular cities and activities.
The relationship was straightforward. Offerings and traditional rites would keep the gods satisfied and they would respond through oracular guidance or by answering requests (e.g. to heal an injury).
Brown does not make any comments on a moral or introspective aspect to this worship – it is a very business-like relationship. The eternal gods care for their charges in return for “rites regarded as being as old as the human race itself”. The universe is perfect and unchanging.
The new mood was nebulous, but had some common themes:
- A sense of something internal that made traditional concerns seem trivial.
- Personal relationship with the One God – not just a business relationship with the smaller gods.
- Conversion – The discovery of divine self that was at odds with the individual’s normal social identity. This allowed the average man to gain “a moral excellence which had previously been reserved for classical […] gentleman”
- Revelation as a source of answers that allowed the uneducated to “get to the heart of vital issues without […] the high costs […] of a second century education in philosophy”.
- Evil as a more intimate and direct concern.
- Salvation or Damnation – A concern with the afterlife.
For generations, doing the approved acts and behaving appropriately for your station had been the path to satisfaction. But when Marcus Aurelius compares his Danubian Campaigns to ‘puppies fighting for a bone’ (170-180) we can see a hint that simply doing your job may not necessarily translate into personal contentment.
This introspection led to a concern with the centre – the One God – and a feeling of a personal relationship with a vast power. Conversion and Revelation were central to this and “for innumerable humble men and women it subtly loosened the moulding power of classical culture and of the habitual sanctions of behaviour”.
This levelling effect meant that a man could attain inner perfection and communion with the almighty regardless of his social status. But it also made him an active part of the system and this meant a changed attitude to evils in the world.
Previously it might have been possible to “treat human miseries with detachment – […] regrettable traffic accidents on the well-regulated road system of the universe”. This is no longer sufficient and led to the “most crucial development of these centuries – the definitive splitting off of the ‘demons’ as active forces of evil, against whom men had to pit themselves”.
What is happening is that the universe is no longer perfect – it contains good and evil powers. Demons provide a way to understand the evil and an opponent to battle. They manifested themselves in many ways. Illness was no longer an imbalance of the humours, but a demonic assault.
This new men and women “fitted less easily into their communities and felt out of place in the physical world” as they “manned the barricades in an invisible battle with the demons”. There was an increasing belief in “another, better existence”. This led to the “most profound boundary in the Late Antique world […] the one drawn after death. The invisible chasm between the ‘saved’ and the ‘damned’ stood like a deep moat around the little groups, pagan and Christian alike.”
This last note needs elaboration. Although much of the above evokes a Christian philosophy, the Christians were only one of several ‘new mood’ groups at this time. The Gnostics, the Temple of Mithras and others were also exploring similar paths.
Moritasgus 