Rome and its religions : worship, morality, spirituality
Study day organized on the occasion of the republication of Lux Perpetua (Bibliotheca Cumontiana, Opera maiora 2/Nino Aragno Editore, Turin, 2010) by Professors Carlo Ossola and John Scheid.
Lux Perpetua is the last work by Franz Cumont (1868-1947), published posthumously in 1949. The reading of ancient religion, and in particular of its eschatological conceptions, that it proposes has left a strong imprint on subsequent generations, right up to the present day. Proof of this is the fact that no one has really taken up the subject since. However, Cumont's vision of Roman religion, imbued with morality, spirituality and symbolism, has been the subject of serious criticism since 1949. The republication of Lux Perpetua, as part of the "Bibliotheca Cumontiana" collection promoted by the Academia Belgica (Rome), following that of Les religions orientales dans le paganisme romain (1st ed. 1906, 5th ed. 2006 in the same collection), is an opportunity to examine the intellectual construction that nourishes Cumont's work and its reception. The volume's editors, A. Motte and B. Rochette, will share their interpretations with various specialists in Roman religion and Franz Cumont.