Soteriological Itineraries in the Ancient Mediterranean World

Project Information

MappingSalvation

Grant agreement ID: 101111014

DOI

10.3030/101111014

Project closed

EC signature date 14 July 2023

Start date 1 October 2023

End date 28 February 2026

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 195 914,88

Coordinated by

ECOLE PRATIQUE DES HAUTES ETUDES
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MappingSalvation (Soteriological Itineraries in the Ancient Mediterranean World)

Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2026-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

MappingSalvation investigated how ideas of salvation were formulated, transformed and communicated in the early Roman Empire, with a focus on the first to third centuries AD. The project started from a simple but far-reaching observation: salvation is often treated as a specifically Christian or narrowly religious concept, but in the ancient Mediterranean world the Greek term sôtêria and the Latin term salus covered a much wider field of meanings. They could refer to rescue, preservation, healing, protection, moral reform, civic stability, divine assistance, cosmic order and hope in situations of crisis.
The project addressed the need for a more flexible methodology for studying salvation in antiquity. Traditional categories such as pagan/Christian, philosophical/religious, material/spiritual, individual/collective and this-worldly/otherworldly salvation are often too rigid to capture the complexity of ancient texts and practices. MappingSalvation therefore developed the model of “Salvation Paths”, which studies salvation as a process rather than as a fixed doctrine. This model examines the initial condition from which salvation is sought, the path towards preservation or transformation, the human efforts involved, the divine or semi-divine agents who may intervene, and the final state of rescue, stability or fulfilment.
The project had two main objectives. The first was to establish a new interdisciplinary methodology for the study of salvation in the early Roman Empire. The second was to test this methodology through the analysis of Greek and Latin sources. The project brought together ancient philosophy, philology, history of religions, theology, rhetoric, cultural history and public humanities. This made it possible to study salvation not only as a religious or philosophical idea, but also as a historical, ethical, cultural and communicative category.
The project’s broader relevance lies in the fact that salvation, understood as preservation, survival and transformation, remains a powerful concept today. In a world marked by political instability, ecological anxiety, war, social fragmentation and renewed fears about the future, the project offers historical depth to questions that continue to shape public life: how do individuals and communities imagine protection, responsibility, and hope?

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work carried out during the fellowship successfully achieved the project’s two main objectives and, in several respects, extended its original scope. The main scientific achievement was the refinement and validation of the “Salvation Paths” model. The research showed that sôtêria and salus cannot be reduced to a single doctrinal meaning. Instead, they functioned as a flexible language through which ancient authors reflected on vulnerability, preservation, ethical orientation, divine mediation and transformation.
The model was first tested on the two main authors identified in the project: Seneca and Clement of Alexandria. Seneca provided an important test case because he does not offer a formal doctrine of salvation. In his works, salus appears instead as a dispersed ethical and therapeutic vocabulary linked to self-preservation, moral conversion, inner freedom, fear, political instability, resistance to fortune and the government of the passions. This showed that salvation can operate as a practical and philosophical language even where it is not formulated as an explicit religious doctrine.
Clement of Alexandria offered a different and more structured case. In his works, salvation appears as a progressive itinerary involving divine teaching, philosophical purification, knowledge, initiation, bodily discipline, transformation of the passions and assimilation to God. The project showed how Clement constructed Christian salvation through a sophisticated engagement with Greek philosophy and ritual language. His critique of pagan sacrifice and his reflections on food, weakness, knowledge and communal responsibility also demonstrated that salvation was not only an eschatological issue, but also an ethical, bodily and communal one.
The comparative framework was then strengthened through further work on Plutarch, Apuleius, Middle Platonism, Dio Chrysostom, Aelius Aristides, divination, prophecy, ritual mediation and natural philosophy. This expansion was not a departure from the project’s aims. It fulfilled the project’s initial design by showing that ancient salvation can be understood as a network of interconnected philosophical, religious and cultural trajectories.
The project produced substantial scientific outputs: ten invited or accepted conference presentations, five organised or co-organised public or scientific events, peer-reviewed book chapters, a peer-reviewed special issue, invited encyclopaedia entries, two collective volumes under contract or in preparation, and several articles under review or in preparation. It also generated a wider follow-up research agenda, developed into an ERC Consolidator Grant proposal that reached the interview stage in October 2025.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

MappingSalvation advanced the state of the art by challenging the separation of research on salvation into isolated disciplinary fields. Previous scholarship has often examined salvation within theology, ancient philosophy, ritual studies, history of religions or philology separately. This project showed that these perspectives need to be brought together in order to understand how salvation worked in the early Roman Empire.
The main result beyond the state of the art is methodological. The “Salvation Paths” model provides a reusable framework for analysing salvation as a process structured by recurring elements: a condition of danger, lack or vulnerability; a path of change or preservation; internal factors such as ethical practice, philosophical reflection or self-knowledge; external agents such as gods, teachers, mediators or saviours; and a final state of rescue, stability or transformation. This model can be applied beyond the case studies of the project and developed further in future research on ancient philosophy, religion, literature and cultural history.
The project also produced new interpretations of key ancient authors. It showed that Seneca is valuable precisely because he represents a non-doctrinal language of salvation centred on therapy, freedom and self-preservation. It showed that Clement of Alexandria constructed Christian salvation through the transformation of Greek philosophical, pedagogical and ritual categories. It also showed that in Plutarch and Middle Platonism salvation was connected not only with the soul, but also with divine providence, daemonic mediation, natural disasters, civic life and cosmic order.
A further original result was the development of “Salvation and Performance”, a public-humanities strand linking ancient ideas of salvation, survival and transformation with contemporary performance, dance and cultural criticism. This initiative showed that ancient soteriological concepts can help interpret modern experiences of embodiment, fragility, endurance, collective emotion and aesthetic transformation.
The project’s results provide a strong basis for future research. The conceptual and lexical mapping carried out during the fellowship can be developed into a public digital resource at a later stage. The follow-up research agenda created through the project also offers a sustainable foundation for future publications, collaborations and European funding applications.