Reflections on the Religious World of Paul's Day

Chapter Four A COCK FOR ASCLEPIUS: ‘RELIGION’ AND ‘CULTURE’ IN PAUL’S WORLD
3. Reflections on the Religious World of Paul’s Day

The main thing to emerge for our purposes from this short survey is that what Cicero and others referred to loosely with the word religio penetrated more or less every area of life. From the home, with its hearth and household gods, right up to great affairs of state, noble works of art and culture, and the most important public buildings and civic ceremonies, ‘religion’ was everywhere, because the gods were everywhere.124 Paul, as ‘apostle to the gentiles’, believed himself to be sent by the one God of Israel into this world of many gods.125...