Coping with Versnel: A Roundtable on Religion and Magic

Frits Naerebout has been teaching and researching Ancient History at the History Department of Leiden University for forty years, until his retirement in 2020. His main interest are ancient religions (especially dance, the subject of his 1997 PhD, Attractive Performances), culture contact and culture change in the ancient world, and the reception of Greco-Roman culture in the post-classical world. He has published monographs, text books, and numerous articles and reviews, including (with H.W. Singor) Antiquity. Greeks and Romans in context (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).Kim Beerden is Assistant Professor of Ancient History at the History Department of Leiden University, where she got her PhD in 2013, published by Brill as Worlds Full of Signs. Ancient Greek Divination in Context. She works mainly in the fields of ancient religion and of reception studies, but has also published on food history. Most recently she edited (with Timo Epping) Classical Controversies. Reception of Graeco-Roman Antiquity in the Twenty-First Century (Sidestone Press, 2022).

• PrefaceIntroduction: An Inquiry into the Origin, Development and Meaning of Human LifeA Personal Account of the Scholarship of Henk VersnelFrits G. Naerebout and Kim BeerdenBibliography of H.S. VersnelPart 1: Inconsistencies and Other Complexities1 Cognitive Science of Religion and the Work of Henk VersnelAncient and Modern Scholars on Inconsistencies, from Aristotle to VersnelJennifer Larson2 “One Must Not Ask Questions Such as These”Casper C. de Jonge3 Divine Metonymy: Theology and RhetoricTim WhitmarshPart 2 : Myth and Ritual 4 The History of Myth and RitualRobert A. Segal5 Transitions, Reversals, InconsistenciesH.S. Versnel on Myth and RitualMichael D. KonarisPart 3 : Magic, Prayers for Justice, and Emotion6 The Typical and the Outlier in Ancient Greek CursingPrayers for Justice, Erotic Curses and other Important CategoriesChris A. Faraone7 Ancient Magic in a New KeyRefining an Exotic Discipline in the History of ReligionsDavid Frankfurter8 My God! Religion as Emotional Experience in the Hellenistic World and the Roman EastAngelos ChaniotisPart 4 : Saving Death 9 Jesus Christus als neue Alkestis und neuer KodrosDas Sterben „für“ andere Menschen bei Paulus und im paganen KontextChristina EschnerPart 5 : Henotheism 10 Henotheism, a ‘Consistent’ Category of PolytheismNicole BelaycheEpilogue 11 Foreword to an AfterwordHenk S. Versnel12 ResponseHenk S. VersnelBibliographyIndex

"For a volume centered around a scholar whose work was so prolific and wide-reaching, there is a remarkable amount of coherence to it. [...]. In the end, the editors should be congratulated for putting together this fitting tribute to Henk Versnel, who sadly passed away earlier this year." Joseph E. Sanzo, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2025.11.42