Browsing by Author "Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay Gayle"

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    Cassius Dio 41.43: Divination as a Liability in Pompey’s Civil War
    (2018-01) Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay Gayle
    This paper explores the report in Cass. Dio 41.43 that the Republican forces at Thessalonica in 49 BCE encountered auspicial difficulties when they attempted to hold elections for the next year. This incident demonstrates the respect of the Republican forces for state divination and sheds light on the significance and workings of the lex curiata.
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    ‘“Do Not Examine, But Believe?” A Classicist’s Perspective on Teresa Morgan’s Roman Faith and Christian Faith’
    (2018-01) Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay Gayle
    This article offers a Classicist’s perspective on Teresa Morgan’s book Roman Faith and Christian Faith.
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    House, Church, or Neither? The Dura-Europos House Church as Christian Place and Christian Initiation Centre
    (2019-09-19) Christian, Rebecca Isabel; Moore, Anne; Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay Gayle; Palacios, Joy; Hughes, Lisa A.
    Dura-Europos, an ancient city profoundly damaged in the 2011 Syrian Civil War, is the site of one of the earliest Christian buildings on record. Abandoned during a city siege in 256 CE, the Dura-Europos House Church (as it is known) remained remarkably well-preserved until its discovery in 1927. The House Church stands as indispensable physical evidence of the ritualistic activity of one early Christian community. The excavated Baptistery, in particular, provides insight into the way baptism was conducted at this early point in Christian development. This project examines the Dura-Europos House Church as a matrix for the creation of a particular early type of Christian identity. This sort of analysis is predicted on two assumptions. The first is that the Durene Christian community was deeply conditioned by their situation in a Roman-Syrian garrison town. The second is that the building was primarily used by Christians in order to ritually baptize new members into the community. The House Church functioned as a key, identifiable place for Durene Christians; it was mobilized, through ritual behaviour, to define Christians as a particular community associated with the Christian symbolism, minutiae and tropes found within the space. The building, therefore, is analyzed primarily through ritual and place studies, augmented with cognitive science of religion where appropriate. Its materiality is interpreted through early, geographically appropriate, and ritually-centric sacred texts. Findings from this sort of analysis suggest that Durene Christians defined their religious exclusivity through their place-making. Their baptismal ritual brings an initiate from an open outside world into a sealed, enclosed, heavily purified place. Christian identity, as instilled through this ritual, was similarly defined as purified, healed, and bound to a specific type of insider place. The findings of this analysis outline one way new religious identities were acquired in the late Roman Empire, and outline key identity-markers of Christianity during its early development.
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    How the Mithraeum of the Mithraic Cult Functioned as Sacred Space in Rome
    (2020-06-29) Nadeau, Justin Taylor; Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay Gayle; Vanderspoel, John; Palacios, Joy
    Sacred space is a complicated subject, and it should be treated as such. Scholarship on the cult of Mithras often simply denotes a space as sacred without any further recognition given to how the space functions as sacred. By applying the theory associated with sacred space I determine that the Mithraeum of the ancient cult of Mithras functioned as sacred space through the boundaries, active and passive role in the human bodily experience, establishing a communal identity and the perceived presence of a deity. That said, each sacred space utilizes these elements in unique ways and as such, there is not one single cohesive application of sacred space.
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    Movement and Motion: Spatial Change in Roman Domestic Religion. Paganism to Christianity, 1st-5th centuries CE
    (2019-01-03) MacIntosh, Candace Rae; Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay Gayle; Palacios, Joy; Vanderspoel, John
    This thesis sets out to examine changes in Roman domestic spaces related to religious practice from the pagan to Christian period. I argue that in their spatial negotiation of pre-existing pagan spaces, early Christian belief was influenced by these pagan spaces. A long process of reinterpreting domestic space created new spatial codes, to be understood as exclusively Christian. Case studies of Roman domestic architecture reveal that there is a detectable reinvention of space that emphasizes decreased visibility and increased personal-space intimacy in domestic religious performance.
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    Science and Sibyls: An Exploration of Consultation of Sibylline Books at Rome
    (2019-04-16) Bertram, Kathrine Agnes; Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay Gayle; Hume, James Rutherford; Ruparell, Tinu
    This thesis explores the consultation of the Sibylline Books at Rome in relation to six characteristics of science. The characteristics considered are “Expertise”, “Analysis”, “Regimentation”, “Record Keeping”, “Defined Scope”, and “Observation”. It is argued that all of these characteristics are displayed in consultation of the Sibylline Books, although to varying degrees. It is further demonstrated that consultation of the Sibylline Books influenced Roman public policy in much the same way that science affects public opinion and policy today.