The conference will investigate whether and to what extent religious knowledge in the form of textual traditions and rituals was accessible to and known by ordinary people beyond religious functionaries.
Which contexts (e.g., family, synagogue/church, private and public study and ritual practices) enabled the dissemination and acquisition of religious knowledge, in which forms was it accessible (e.g., oral discourse, texts, visual art), and which individuals (e.g., parents, teachers, scribes, rabbis, priests, monks) mediated it to others? Can we assume that the majority of those who identified themselves as Jewish or Christian would have possessed a “working knowledge” of the respective religious traditions and customary rituals? Would that knowledge have differed from one person to another, depending on gender, socio-economic status, religious commitment, and the general circumstances in which one lived? Which sources enable us to access and evaluate ordinary people’s knowledge, given that our literary sources were written by the literate intellectual elites? How did religious leaders disseminate scriptural knowledge? Were they interested in maintaining a monopoly on the interpretation and application of law and theology and show off their erudition and expertise? If “popular” religious knowledge was eclectic and rudimentary, to what extent did customary practice play a role? Would the public have been more familiar with specific stories, traditions, and rituals than with others? And what would have been the consequences of the (limited?) extent of religious knowledge on the public performance of religious rituals and observance?