Domestic religion, family life and the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles

Abstract

Exploring the ancient family and household religion is still a field of surprises and possible discoveries, especially as the question of sources and their possible evidential value is far from obvious. Interviews and strict statistical studies not being available, we have to do the second best thing, and survey all possible sources for the kind of information they may possibly yield. Only in juxtaposition of as many sources as possible, and with corroborative evidence from different quarters an image will emerge that spans different social strata and allows for a detailed and diversified perception. How are private, personal, family and public expressions of “religion” interconnected? And very simply, where does “religion” take place? Christianity as a missionary movement competes with traditional religions and ritual systems, and to some degree is also defined by this competition.1 How is religion expressed in household artefacts and rituals of everyday life? As Christianity originally was a religion of radical reduction of ritual complexity compared to ancient public ritual life2, it is of special importance to look out for all information we can get about domestic religion in its earlier centuries. Non-Christians in antiquity will have quickly observed what Christians do not have: sacrifices, temples, public shrines and dedication inscriptions, oracles, asylums and hikesia, mysteries, fumigations, libations, publicly visible purification rites, processions, dances, service of cult images, contests and games and other public performances, consecration rituals, cult places of traditional renown and complex personnel, taboo and eating rules (though fasting is well-known), and others. It did have of course prayers, banquets, some sacramental rites (radically reduced compared to pagan ritual life) and congregational meetings of different kinds (not to forget cemetery rituals, only recently acknowledged as central for early Christianity)3, and it slowly developed its own cult personnel,