Soteriological Itineraries in the Ancient Mediterranean World

MappingSalvation aims at establishing a novel methodology for the study of salvation experiences and theories, structured around a newly developed epistemic model that allows for a thorough investigation of salvation itineraries across multiple cultural contexts.

The geographical-historical framework of reference for this research is the Mediterranean basin in the early Roman imperial age, a world animated by a strong, pervasive desire for salvation, which permeated most areas of human experience: philosophical reflection, religious cults and beliefs, political life and ideology, ritual and divinatory practice.This project relies on the groundbreaking hypothesis that only by conceiving the ancient Mediterranean world as a wide, intricatenetwork of salvation itineraries, can we fully exploit the heuristic potential of the category of salvation, understand the profoundphilosophical-religious dynamics of the first centuries AD, and even discover unexpected similarities between this age and ourcontemporary world, where the needs to save human lives, animal species and our planet are all the more urgent and intense.By analysing the Greek and Latin works of two apparently distant thinkers (Seneca the Younger and Clement of Alexandria), MappingSalvation will attain a twofold aim: first, to validate empirically a new analytical model and taxonomical system for the examination and categorisation of salvation itineraries; second, to inaugurate a wide-ranging discussion around the concept of salvation, and a cooperation among different scholars and fields of expertise that have worked separately until today.

If successful, MappingSalvation will revolutionise the way in which we look at salvation in antiquity and beyond, and will establish a shared conceptual apparatus and common epistemic standards for its study.