An introduction to the religious cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, from the earliest indications of human religious practices during the prehistoric era to the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity in the 4th century of the Common Era. Examines the religious activities of prehistoric human beings and considers the religious cultures of the great ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine, Greece, and the Roman Empire. Explains the rituals and mythology of a civiliation's official religious culture and also the beliefs, practices, and yearnings of the common person.

Accompanying guides include biographical information, lecture notes and outlines, timelines, glossaries, and bibliographical references. Course no. 6340: 48 lectures on 8 discs in 4 containers (30 min./lecture).

Pt. 1. Disc 1. Lecture 1-6.Talking about ancient religious cultures -- What is religion? -- Early prehistoric religion -- Prehistoric religion, the neolithic era -- Egypt, a unique religious culture -- Egyptian creation stories and their meaning -- Pt. 1. Disc 2. Lectures 7-12. The Egyptian pantheon -- Egyptian myths of kingship -- Egyptian myths of the underworld -- Egypt, the power of goddesses -- Egypt, religion in everyday life -- Egypt, the beginning of wisdom -- Pt. 2. Disc 3. Lectures 13-18. Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers -- Mesopotamia, stories of creation -- Mesopotamia, Inanna the Goddess -- Mesopotamia, Gilgamesh the King -- Mesopotamia, the search for eternal life -- Mesopotamia, the great flood -- Pt. 2. Disc 4. Lectures 19-24. Ancient concepts of the divine -- The gods of Syria-Palestine -- Israel's ancestral history -- Israel's national history -- Prophecy in the ancient Near East -- Early prophecy in Israel. Pt. 3. Disc 5. Lectures 25-30. Classical Israelite prophecy -- Israel's great crisis -- Syria-Palestine, the problem of evil -- Early Aegean civilizations -- Religious culture in the Iliad and the Odyssey -- Religious culture in archaic Greece -- Pt. 3. Disc 6. Lectures 31-36. Greece, how things came to be -- Greece, the goddess -- The classical era in Greece -- Greece, philosophy as religion -- Religious culture in the Hellenistic world -- Mystery religions in the Hellenistic world -- Pt. 4. Disc 7. Lectures 37-42. Mystery religions from the East -- Roman religious culture before the empire -- Rome, saviors and divine men -- Rome, divination, astrology, and magic -- Rome, critics and charlatans -- Jesus of Nazareth as a figure in history -- Pt. 4. Disc 8. Lectures 43-48. Creating Jesus communities -- Living and dying for the God(s) -- Women's religious roles in the early empire -- The Jesus movement in the Greco-Roman world -- The death and rebirth of the old gods -- Conclusion: persisting ideas and yearnings.