Neue Priester braucht das Land, oder: Wollte Kaiser Julian eine „heidnische Kirche“ schaffen?

Abstract

Abstract:This article deals with the question of whether the emperor Julian tried to create a „pagan church“, as has often been assumed. By an analysis of the response given to Julian’s self-representation in inscriptions and contemporary authors and by a close reading of the few programmatic statements of the emperor himself it aims to demonstrate that this notion is seriously misleading as a description of the specific nature of his religious policies. The common idea that Julian imitated Christian institutions derives from a construct of interreligious polemic and should also be abandoned. A comparison of organizational structures leads to the same result: There is no homology between the structures that Julian intended to create and the organization of the contemporary „Reichskirche“. The provincial high-priest instituted by Julian was not the analogue to the city-based bishop of Christian communities nor did the emperor conceive of his role in such terms.