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Who and what?

Roman Republic | Respublica Romana > Forums > Sacra Publica | Public & community aspects the Roman Religion > Cultus Deorum Romanorum | Ancient Roman Religion > Who and what?

This topic contains 3 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by  Gaius Flavius Iustinus 4 months, 1 week ago.

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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  • May 8, 2020 at 9:32 pm #37707

    Lucius Curtius Paullus
    Denarii: 𐆖 91.35
    Plebeius
    Nova Hispania Ulterior

    Salve,

    What is the situation of the Religio within the Roman Republic? Who is running the organization of the Religio? I read there is an application for Sacerdotes where can one locate it?Ā  What is the situation with the CP? I seen an 18 year old is an Auger?

    Is there any religio training going on? Courses or study groups?Ā  Is there and plans for learning or offerings going on?

    Can anyone help enlighten me?

    VAle

    May 8, 2020 at 10:24 pm #37708

    Publius Iunius Brutus
    Denarii: 𐆖 1,460.08
    Patricius
    Pacifica
    Lictor Curiatus MagisterSenatorSacerdosAugurCurule Aedile

    Sal.

    Good question. So there is no collegium pontificum. Why? Because it has been deemed that there is no single group of people that could fulfil this solemn duty at the present. We have been mindful to not treat the collegium pontificum as a transient group of people that come and go with their personal activity, interest or whims. There are sacerdotes that are all provisional. Some have lived up to their duties. Others have not. They were all approved by the Comitia Curiata on a trial basis for this reason.

    Personally, as a sacerdote the biggest obstacle I see in developing an active CDR is education. The resources out there that are accessible are very poor. Ā Those that are better are harder to access and are very academic. They are not written for a cultor. So what the CDR is, how to make it a living religion, how to promote it, develop historically mindful ceremonies is a hard, maybe even unrealistic task for many.

    I’m working with other sacerdotes towards correcting this education aspect. Here is a preview of the new Academia Minervalis platform that is in the works. It will offer a full training course based on all those difficult to access resources. It will be free.

    Applications for sacerdotes are temporarily on hold until the Comitia Curiata reviews current sacerdotes and decides how to proceed in a more optimal manner.

    I’m very interested to hear other ideas on this topic and how we as a community can improve.

    Ā 

    • This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by Ā Publius Iunius Brutus.
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    August 28, 2020 at 7:39 pm #39249

    Servia Curia Gemina
    Denarii: 𐆖 206.50
    Plebeius
    Nova Svecia

    Salve! So I was looking at the two replies above, and the only ā€œin-between solutionā€ I could think of would basically be the adult equivalent of a youth group book club on Zoom. I picture people getting together at like, I dunno, 8:30 PM on a weeknight (I’m spitballing here) and the format would run something like: Hey, how’s everyone doing, and then literally, we would all start pooling resources. We’d record the session, and there would be someone present to keep notes and organize them afterward. The initial goal of meetings like this would be to see where people are actually learning their information about the faith. The secondary goal would probably be to integrate people’s actual experiences with religio Romana into a more cohesive Roman Republic. Like I hate to be blunt, but we can’t just rely on the comments sections on Facebook, and I’m worried (though this may be my own uninformed impression, and I welcome correction) that things like FB are the beginning and end of our collective experience.

    Also, I understand that for those who are already taking steps to do this (though way better informed than me just rambling here), it is probably a frustrating, start-and-stop process that begins and ends and begins individual by individual. Additionally, this is an international organization, so the opportunities for us to see each other in person are minimal at best, even in a non-COVID world, but we can make it work. Look, Jewish choral music in Poland after World War II was single-handedly revived by a woman who only had one person show up at the first rehearsal, and now that choir exists and performs to this day. If they can do that, WE can get ourselves educated and organized.

    (Sigh.) SO, one of the simultaneous advantages and disadvantages of participating in a religion which could be termed ā€œnewā€ (less derogatorily than ā€œalternativeā€ or ā€œNew Ageā€) is that there is plenty of room for interpretation. We have all the freedom in the world to explore our faith, however we wish. In the mean time, we want to be respectful of the Gods, of the tradition, and of ourselves.Ā  Ritual practice, prayer, and theology inevitably change over time. I’m often surprised and delighted to learn about how much this ā€œnewā€ faith has grown, that there are temples in the States I didn’t even know about until recently, that there are more overseas. We’re on an uptick, which is slow but steady, and this is cause for celebration.

    I agree with what Publius Iunius Brutus said about the accessibility of information. Not only is it heavily academic, but it’s also expensive. As in, like,Ā expensive. All the good stuff is giant research papers. Which is really cool, but then it creates the impression that this religion is only accessible to those who want to put in the time to read. This is not a new problem, for a faith-based/intellectual/creative organization to have a reputation for inaccessibility and exclusivity. I’m pretty easy: I’ll take whatever ritual format and history books and blog posts I can get and improvise the rest the cows come home, but not everyone’s like that. Some people need the structure and simplification in the here and now. However, I don’t believe this is an impossible task. I think it’ll just take time. We may have to suffer our religion through a break-in period, however painful, while we figure things out in real time. But it can be done.

    I’m a yes-man: I would rather see spiritual activity which may or may not be entirely correct, than none at all. If we spend too much time doing nothing for the sake of accuracy, then we’ll stagnate- as individual cultores and as a community. I understand that Roman tradition demands a high degree of perfection. However, there is a difference between striving for perfection for the sake of honoring the Gods, than not honoring them at all and thus ignoring them.

    But then also, like, I get it: this is all part of the human experience, and we want to feelĀ good about it, right? Like we want to be proud of what we’re doing. It’s up to us to do a good job. We have only ourselves to fall back on, and that can be scary, but it’s also exciting!

    I’m really curious to see where the Academia Minervalis goes!

    Like, come on people, let’s do this thing! Also I got like super off topic!

    September 14, 2020 at 2:58 pm #39712

    Gaius Flavius Iustinus
    Denarii: 𐆖 22.00
    Plebeius
    Sarmatia
    Lucius Curtius Paullus wrote:

    Can anyone help enlighten me?

    Let’s just say I’m still a fan of criticizing what is happening, because usually everything goes somehow wrong. However, even I can say that the situation is improving lately. This concerns the sphere of religion. Probably now the Roman Republic is the best place for those already practicing the Roman religion or about to start doing it, among all other organizations. There are drawbacks, there are many of them, this is true, but we hope that the shortcomings will be corrected, it is a matter of time.

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