Prolegomena to a New Methodological Approach to the Pagan Divine Man (θεῖος ἀνήρ) in Late Antiquity

Abstract

With this article I propose a new methodological approach in the field of pagan divine men studies in late antiquity. The “Divine Men” were the last representatives of ancient παιδεία (education) in a context where religion, education, and philosophy were inextricably intertwined. Decades of scholarly claims bring the research path towards a multidisciplinary focus in which I suggest applying the Weberian concept of charisma from a social history perspective. Thus, this preliminary research puts forward a new heuristic and hermeneutical method to better understand the social processes that those communities influenced.