ІMAGО IMPERII. ЗА ХРИСТОС, КЕСАРЕВИЯ ДЕНАРИЙ И ИМПЕРАТОРСКИЯ КУЛТ ПРЕЗ ПРИЗМАТА НА АНТИЧНАТА ПОЛИТИЧЕСКА ТЕОЛОГИЯ
IMAGO IMPERII. CHRIST AND CAESAR'S DENARIUS. ON IMPERIAL CULT THROUGH THE PRISM OF ANCIENT POLITICAL THEOLOGY

Summary/Abstract: This paper offers an overview of the relationship between Christianity and the Roman imperial cult through the lens of the idea of the use of political theology as an immediate governing ideology in Antiquity. To do so, I turn to Carl Schmitt's conceptual apparatus and place it in the context of the first princeps, Octavian Augustus, receiving divine honors for the "miracle" of enthroning peace and security in the Empire. In order to establish the origins of these processes and their proximity to the ruler-religious practices of the time (especially as they relate to the legacy of Alexander the Great), the emergence of the cult during the Roman civil wars in the last century of the old era is reviewed. The main theses of the biblical school of 'imperial criticism', formed around Richard Horsley and exploring the New Testament messages in their Roman context, including with regard to the clash between Christian preaching and the official propagation of the imperial cult, are presented. This conflict is explored in the conclusion through an analysis of Christ's response to the rendering of the caesarian denarius, which can reasonably be assumed to have carried the symbolism of the imperial cult. In a paradoxical way, the Son of God, it turns out, holds in his hands the "icon" of the imperial cult, and must rule, in addition to on the relation of civil and religious duties, on the claim of making Roman emperors into earthly gods.

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