The Pagan World

Ancient Religions Before Christianity

De: Hans-Friedrich Mueller, The Great Courses

Narrado por: Hans-Friedrich Mueller

In The Pagan World: Ancient Religions Before Christianity, you will meet the fascinating, ancient polytheistic peoples of the Mediterranean and beyond, their many gods and goddesses, and their public and private worship practices, as you come to appreciate the foundational role religion played in their lives. Professor Hans-Friedrich Mueller, of Union College in Schenectady, New York, makes this ancient world come alive in 24 lectures with captivating stories of intrigue, artifacts, illustrations, and detailed descriptions from primary sources of intriguing personalities.

In the ancient Mediterranean area, religion was not separate from daily life. To the contrary, religion was daily life. The many dozen gods of this ancient world were everywhere, with spirits inhabiting every crack and crevice of life. These polytheists believed they had a strict contract with their deities: If they took care of their gods, their gods would take care of them (or at least not harm them). Consequently, they built extraordinary temples to honor their deities, brought food and wine to them, sacrificed animals for them, and held sacred meals with their gods. In fact, they followed numerous rules and regulations that circumscribed almost all aspects of life both inside and outside the home - anything and everything to keep the gods happy. Consequently, the religious practices of the ancient Mediterranean make a wonderful lens through which to develop a deeper understanding of their world.

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

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Interesting and Engaging

The material was very interesting and engaging. Unfortunately, I found the occasional mispronunciations of proper names of people and places a distraction in the midst of masterfully-written scholarship.

A great listen!

This is truly a great journey through the old world of paganism. It was truly a very enlightening lecture.

Love it

Very deep and well put. Keep this type coming. I would if audible can send me more great books lije this

This guy sounds like he has fucked every undergrad he has ever had,

and that isn't a good thing. That's predatory. Good information if you can get over the fact that you have to listen to a man suck his own dick in a cadence that lets you know that he has read the books you pretend to while simultaneously sounding like a secular youth pastor. Spin that chair around, turn that hat about, and, "Let me tell you about the first rappers - the Assryians. You're so mature foe your age."

Good topic, lackluster performance

Great and interesting topic, just not so thrilled with the instructor. He very much read his lectures and it was very apparent, almost like he was seeing it for the first time. And his mispronouncations? Don't get me started! If someone who teaches pagan religion can't properly pronounce "apostate," they should probably find a new profession.

However, the topic is quite interesting and I did learn a few things, altho much of it was kind of basic.. Worth a listen if you are scrambling for something or not really familiar with the subject, but not sure I'd go out of my way.

Excellent oration and a captivating study!

I was impressed with the professor's ability to present the factual data (with a bit of dry humor mixed in) while distancing his presentations from personal narrative. l Enjoyed the listen very much!

Pagan World of ROME is more accurate

Very detailed religious history OF ROME. There is 1 lecture on the Indian beliefs, a blurb in another lecture about Druids (#17 I think), and one whole lecture on Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians COMBINED. The other 22 lectures focuses EXCLUSIVELY on Rome. I know more about Julius Caesar than any history class, but next to nothing about the concurrent beliefs of Arabia, Africa (excluding some ancient Egyptian), Asia, Northern Europe, or the Americas. Even though these, and many other beliefs, we’re in wide acceptance in their respective areas. Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism all predate Christianity by 400+ years yet there is no mention of them. Disappointed in the narrow definition of “Pagan” but otherwise very thorough, perhaps too much so for any but the most hard-core Roman history buffs.

Very Informative

This Great Courses text is the best I have yet read for helping the reader to understand how religion functioned and why it mattered in the Ancient World. Most of the text focuses on the Graeco-Roman world, but there are also useful chapters on earlier religious practices. The importance of ancestor worship and the religious significance of legitimate bloodlines was also quite interesting as was the way that religion influenced the ways in which Julius Caesar and Augustus carried out their acquisitions of power. But mostly, Muller's text helps the reader to understand how different the world was in ancient times and why it is difficult for us to think in the ways the ancients did.

Mostly Mediterranean flavored.

An interesting overview of the pre-Christian religions, but I will express that this is almost exclusively of the ancient Mediterranean regions, and very heavily on Roman Pagan religion. Most other regions and their ancient beliefs are mostly covered (or just mentioned) to bolster and explain certain elements of the Roman periods. You will learn a lot about the head-spinning entanglement of religion to every aspect of Roman culture and history, boy they loved birds almost as much as they liked conquering and how calendars were not their forté, as well as the foreign influences that shaped their world. If you wanted to know more about the Pagan world of the rest of the world, this is not the lectures for that.

Interesting insights

Overall I found this book interesting. I primarily listened to it while going to bed. When I did fall asleep I always went back to the last point I remembered. (I didn’t want to miss anything!)