Compiled from papers presented at various conferences and seminars between 2017 and 2019, this volume includes fourteen brief studies on the topic of ‘belief and “un”-belief’; ‘un-belief’ understood in terms of scepticism, meaning scepticism regarding one's own tradition, not disbelief in the sense of astonishment, as opposed to gullibility (though in the volume ‘disbelief’ is also used in the sense of ‘un-belief’ as defined here). Another, perhaps less confusing, phrase used in the volume for this type of scepticism is ‘insider doubt’. Questions of terminology are very much a theme in the volume. As the editors write in the introduction, ‘all essays in the volume are (on different levels) concerned with problems of terminology and categorization’ (p. viii). The chapters discuss cases of this type of religious scepticism ranging from the second millennium bce to the third century ce, an unusual time frame, which is interesting but has its drawbacks. There is merely one contribution on ‘disbelief’ in ancient Egypt (chapter ii, following chapter i, which is on ‘disbelief and cognate concepts in Roman Antiquity’), discussing a source from the eighteenth century bce. It is followed by two essays on classical Athens, two on the late Roman republic and the early empire, three from the post-Hellenistic Greek world (on Plutarch, Aelius Aristides and Lucian of Samosata respectively), and three on New Testament writings (Paul, the Synoptics and John). The last two chapters are on ‘doubt’ in some Nag Hammadi writings and on astrology and magic as ways of ‘evading doubt’ in the ‘Greco-Roman period’. Naturally, a collection such as this cannot be expected to offer a comprehensive overview of religious scepticism and belief in the ancient world. Obviously, it would have been interesting to have had at least one contribution each on, say, the ancient near East and Judaism. As it is, the volume represents a collection that is above all interested in Classical and Hellenistic Greek and Roman religion and early Christianity. Clifford Ando begins with an essay on ‘Disbelief and cognate concepts in Roman antiquity’ comparing mainly Cicero's De natura deorum and Augustine's early works (pp. 1–19). Jan Assmann, writing on ‘Ancient Egyptian disbelief in the promises of eternity’ (pp. 21–35), observes a weakening of the belief in an everlasting afterlife in some texts dating from the beginning of the second millennium bce. He concludes that although it would be wrong to assume that there ever arose ‘a time of general disbelief’ in ancient Egypt, ‘the Egyptians did in fact give up … monumental tomb-building’ in later periods and most of their elaborate mortuary rites (p. 35). Tim Whitmarsh writes about ‘The invention of atheism and the invention of religion in classical Athens’ (pp. 37–51), which is followed by a chapter on ‘Youth, atheism, and (un)belief in late fifth-century Athens’, in which Jan N. Bremmer engages with some of Whitmarsh's theses (pp. 53–68). Matthew A. Fox offers a reappraisal of ‘disbelief in Rome’ (pp. 69–91), which also includes a discussion of the influence of classical texts critical of traditional religion on the Enlightenment. Babett Edelmann-Singer, in her chapter ‘Who will worship this man as a god, who will believe in him?’ (pp. 93–110), revisits ‘Seneca's Apocolocyntosis and the hermeneutical categories of belief and scepticism in emperor cult’. Kai Trampedach writes on ‘Plutarch als Apologet des Orakels von Delphi’ (pp. 111–26). Janet Downie's essay is on ‘Belief and doubt in Aelius Aristides's Isthmian Oration: To Poseidon’ (pp. 127–46). Inger N. I. Kuin's chapter is entitled ‘Loukianos Atheos?’ (pp. 147–64) and investigates ‘humour and religious doubt in Lucian of Samosata’ (p. 147). In ‘Skepsis und Christusglaube’ (pp. 165–83) Tobias Nicklas explores ‘Funktionen, Räume und Impulse des Zweifels bei Paulus’ (p. 165). David P. Moessner sees ‘Luke as sceptical insider’ (pp. 185–201). For Benjamin Schliesser, who offers an interpretation of John xx.24–9 (the story of doubting Thomas), John is ‘The Gospel for Sceptics’ (pp. 203–25). Under the title ‘Why do you doubt?’ (pp. 227–41), Anna Van den Kerchove's chapter reflects on ‘scepticism and some Nag Hammadi writings’ (p. 227). Richard L. Gordon, finally, offers a chapter on ‘astrology and magic in the Greco-Roman world’ entitled ‘Evading doubt’ (pp. 243–67). A comprehensive bibliography and a set of detailed indices conclude the volume (pp. 269–335).

There is much to learn from this volume, although – perhaps due to its theme – it is, as the editors themselves admit in the introduction, throwing up more questions than it is offering answers. What the volume shows, however, is that the words ‘scepticism’, ‘doubt’, ‘disbelief’ and ‘unbelief’ denote aspects of a general human state of mind not restricted to ‘religion’. This is well expressed in the first words of the title, ‘Sceptic and believer’, a juncture that includes every conscious human being. The rest of the title is more problematic. Whether ‘ancient Mediterranean religions’ existed has recently been called in doubt. Some contributions engage with this question. The resulting picture is a complex one: it seems that some forms of scepticism were indeed aimed at ‘religion/s’. But what does that mean in each case? Was the existence of a tradition or culture in its entirety called in doubt, or of part of that culture, or merely of certain (corrupt) beliefs and practices within that culture? Atheism, for example, it turns out in the light of this, seems not to be a form of scepticism but more a kind of ‘fideism’, an attempt to replace scepticism (aimed at religion) with an alternative certainty. ‘Evading doubt’ is a similar phenomenon, as the final chapter demonstrates. It can be the function of religion itself, however broadly or narrowly one defines that concept, or of alternatives such as magic, astrology, perhaps science. Doubt, disbelief, unbelief, hesitation to belief, a critical state of mind, a questioning, protesting, attitude towards the human condition in general and towards the specific cultural conditions in which a protagonist gives expression to such a state of mind, is, as this volume well shows, essential to what it has always meant for humans to be human. It may have preceded religion and it certainly remained inherently part of religion, at least in the cases of ancient Mediterranean religion discussed in this volume.