Introduction

Abstract

This introductory chapter highlights three fruitful approaches to a more theoretically astute approach to religious identifications in late antique papyri. Drawing upon the academic study of religions, sociolinguistics, and sociology, this volume aims to contribute to further theorizing, while bringing particular observations into broader conversations, thereby transcending the historical and material setting of late antique Egypt without losing touch with the important, detailed, papyrological and historical work. The first element of a situational approach is to bypass current paradigms of coherent competing groups or communities (which we will call groupism). Rather than taking the postulation of groups at face value, we propose to take into account shared religious practices and the fluidity of everyday life. The second element is, therefore, to take individuals in everyday situations seriously, without reducing them to pre-scripted hostile or friendly interactions between religions. The final element is a set of related questions and approaches focused on the postulated efficacy of words, phrases and symbols, which could be used in specific performative settings to achieve a goal. Signaling a religious identification is one of the potential goals, but often these words belonged to associated politeness strategies, or even evoked notions of direct efficacy. Read alongside each other, the various contributions in this volume engage in the pivotal task of engaging historical and papyrological studies in conversation with large-scale social-scientific debates on religion.