Coping With the Gods
Wayward Readings in Greek Theology
Biographical note
Henk S. Versnel, Ph.D. (1970) in Classics (Leiden), is Emeritus Professor in Ancient History (University Leiden). He has published extensively on Greek and Roman myth, ritual, magic and religion, including two volumes on "Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion" (Brill, 1990 and 1993).
Readership
The book will be of interest to classicists, historians, historians of religion and philosophy, and anthropologists, and should be required reading for anyone who accepts the title theologian.
Reviews
The aim of Greek rituals – sacrifices, prayers, hymns, processions – was to bring the gods from heaven to earth. This is exactly what H.S. Versnel achieves: his Sather lectures bring the Olympians from the heaven of philosophers and theologians to the real world of the mortal Greeks. Versnel places belief in the gods in the socio-cultural context of the Greek polis, with all its complexities, contradictions, and dynamics. Until a time-machine will allow us to ask the Greeks what they thought of their gods, we will have to do with Versnel’s penetrating, imaginative, and stimulating reconstruction. - Angelos Chaniotis
The high scholarly stature of this book and the author’s formidable familiarity with a huge swathe of evidence and bibliography will be recognized by any reader - Donald Mastronarde
C’est une véritable Summa theologica que nous offre Henk S. Versnel, un livre dense, fruit non seulement des Sather Lectures données à Berkeley en 1999, mais surtout d’une longue et féconde fréquentation des dieux antiques, d’une vie d’enquêtes et de questionnements sur les panthéons grecs et romains. ... l’ambitieux programme de complexification et de clarification conjointes [...] a produit un livre atypique, titanesque (comme le suggère le marbre moderne de la couverture, intitulé « Titan »), d’une richesse rare, voire unique, exigeant et stimulant. Un long périple, une surprenante « odyssée », une nécessaire exploration de la Divina Commedia, dont nous devons être profondément reconnaissants à son Auteur. - Corinne Bonnet, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review, August 2012.
Versnel combines deep erudition and engagement with both ancient material and modern scholarship (half of many pages are adorned with footnotes and several appendices elaborate central issues) with impish wit. No student of Greek religion can afford—despite the price—not to read this volume. - Jenny Strauss Clay, University of Virginia, in: Religious Studies Review, Vol 38, Iss. 4 (2012).
The high scholarly stature of this book and the author’s formidable familiarity with a huge swathe of evidence and bibliography will be recognized by any reader - Donald Mastronarde
C’est une véritable Summa theologica que nous offre Henk S. Versnel, un livre dense, fruit non seulement des Sather Lectures données à Berkeley en 1999, mais surtout d’une longue et féconde fréquentation des dieux antiques, d’une vie d’enquêtes et de questionnements sur les panthéons grecs et romains. ... l’ambitieux programme de complexification et de clarification conjointes [...] a produit un livre atypique, titanesque (comme le suggère le marbre moderne de la couverture, intitulé « Titan »), d’une richesse rare, voire unique, exigeant et stimulant. Un long périple, une surprenante « odyssée », une nécessaire exploration de la Divina Commedia, dont nous devons être profondément reconnaissants à son Auteur. - Corinne Bonnet, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review, August 2012.
Versnel combines deep erudition and engagement with both ancient material and modern scholarship (half of many pages are adorned with footnotes and several appendices elaborate central issues) with impish wit. No student of Greek religion can afford—despite the price—not to read this volume. - Jenny Strauss Clay, University of Virginia, in: Religious Studies Review, Vol 38, Iss. 4 (2012).
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