Who Invented Idolatry?

Résumé En

In late antiquity, Christian authors triumphantly celebrated the end of polytheism and idolatry: Christ had vanquished the demons and the Church taken over the empire. Both concepts, however, were relatively new, and were forged in the context of the theological debates aiming to define Christianity as the sole true religion as opposed to the multitude of religious customs, practices and beliefs of the ancient Mediterranean. The advent of a Christian empire in the fourth century did not mark the end of idolatry. Rather, it allowed the concept to spread beyond such theological debate and operate as a category of legal, political, and historical discourse. Idolatry would in fact prove an enduring concept, setting the stage for early Western explorations into comparative religion in the early modern and modern eras, when a wide range of previously unknown “idolatries” were suddenly exposed and required explanation.