Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 167:667 (Jul 2010)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Jefferson P. Webster

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BSac 167:667 (July-September 2010) p. 358

Periodical Reviews

By The Faculty and Library Staff of Dallas Theological Seminary

Jefferson P. Webster

Editor

“The Roman Imperial Cult and Revelation,” Michael Naylor, Currents in Biblical Research 8 (2010): 207-39.

This article on imperial cults and the Book of Revelation provides a detailed and thorough overview of scholarship on the subject, including a summary of imperial cults study and its impact on the interpretation of Revelation. The article discusses a wealth of modern literature on the subject with appropriate comments on the impact of those studies on the field.

The article is divided into three parts. The first is a discussion of imperial cults in classical studies. Naylor mentions much of the most important literature on the subject and highlights contributions. He correctly notes the major shift in the understanding of emperor worship that occurred most dramatically with the publication of Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor, by Simon Price (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984). Price challenged the accepted view that imperial cults were primarily a political phenomenon that had little to do with actual Roman religious experience. Price’s work was based in part on anthropology (including the importance of ritual), and he demonstrated that imperial cults were an important part of the religious life of the empire. Also Price challenged scholars to avoid Christianizing assumptions about imperial cults in the attempt to understand them.

Naylor discusses contributions of many scholars who have built on Price’s work. He correctly includes Steven J. Friesen in this section because of the importance of his contribution (Imperial Cults and the Apocalypse of John: Reading Revelation in the Ruins [Oxford: Clarendon, 2001]), though Friesen is primarily a New Testament scholar, not a classicist. Naylor notes the importance of Duncan Fishwick’s work The Imperial Cult in the Latin West, 2 vols. (New York: Brill, 1987, 1992), which does not entirely follow Price. Included also is a discussion of emperor worship in different regions of the empire.

Naylor’s survey considers most of the valuable literature on the subject, though it would have been good to have seen more emphasis placed on Ittai Gradel’s contribution (Emperor Worship and Roman Religion [Oxford: Clarendon, 2002]). This section is excellent for anyone interested in imperial cults and is not restricted to those interested in the subject for its relationship to Revelation. Also helpful in this part is Naylor’s inclusion of sections on imperial cults from books that are not directly about emperor ...

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