Scholars have long emphasized the importance of scripture in
studying religion, tacitly separating a few privileged "religions
of the Book" from faiths lacking sacred texts, including ancient
Roman religion. Looking beyond this distinction, Duncan MacRae
delves into Roman religious culture to grapple with a central
question: what was the significance of books in a religion without
scripture? In the last two centuries BCE, Varro and other learned
Roman authors wrote treatises on the nature of the Roman gods and
the rituals devoted to them. Although these books were not sacred
texts, they made Roman religion legible in ways analogous to
scripture-based faiths such as Judaism and Christianity. Rather
than reflect the astonishingly varied polytheistic practices of the
regions under Roman sway, the contents of the books comprise Rome's
"civil theology"-not a description of an official state religion
but one limited to the civic role of religion in Roman life. An
extended comparison between Roman books and the Mishnah-an early
Rabbinic compilation of Jewish practice and law-highlights the
important role of nonscriptural texts in the demarcation of
religious systems. Tracing the subsequent influence of Roman
religious texts from the late first century BCE to early fifth
century CE, Legible Religion shows how two major developments-the
establishment of the Roman imperial monarchy and the rise of the
Christian Church-shaped the reception and interpretation of Roman
civil theology.
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