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This course offers a critical approach to the phenomenon of religion, understood as a cultural construct in constant dialogue and interaction with other forms of cultural production. Religion is conceived as a powerful intellectual tool that generates symbolic constructions ¿ among which mythological narratives are particularly prominent ¿ designed to provide answers to the fundamental anxieties arising from the experience of conscious existence. The course explores a universe of beliefs that gives meaning and cohesion to human communities, shaping both individual and collective relationships with supernatural entities through formalized actions: rituals. Beliefs and rituals thus emerge as essential mechanisms in the construction of social identities, offering individuals a sense of belonging that provides protection and a framework of reference within the group. Moreover, the course emphasizes the central role of religion in the origin and development of intercommunity conflicts, given that it forms the core of the ideological superstructure supporting socioeconomic and political structures. These, in turn, shape the dynamics of interaction with other communities. From this perspective, the course challenges the reductionist tendency to attribute conflicts solely to religion, overlooking its complex entanglement within a broader network of structural factors. Ultimately, the interaction between religion and culture forms the central axis of this course, inviting students to critically analyze religious discourses as an active part of cultural production and configurations of power.

1) Upper Paleolithic. The origins of religious thought: abstraction, language, representation. 2) Mesolithic and Neolithic. The domestication of the mind, megalithism, sacralization of space. 3) Egypt. Religion as support for the cosmological, dynastic, and social order. 4) Mesopotamia. The origin of the State: kingship between ritual and bureaucracy. 5) The Ancient Near East. The supposed ideological-religious opposition between Indo-European and Semitic worlds: integration or extermination of foreign gods. 6) The Greek ¿Dark Age¿ after the collapse of the Minoan and Mycenaean worlds (1200¿800 BCE). The role of religion in a period of supposed cultural regression. 7) Archaic and Classical Greece in the Axial Age (800¿323 BCE). Religion and philosophy. 8) Archaic and Classical Greece in the Axial Age (800¿323 BCE). Religion and theatre. 9) The Hellenistic Mediterranean (323¿31 BCE). Universal gods for global empires: the great religious and cultural transformation. 10) The ¿Etrusca Disciplina¿. 11) Archaic Rome. Calendar, ritual, and power. 12) Proto-Republican Rome. Religion and jurisprudence. 13) Late Republican Rome. Civil wars, coinage, and the instrumentalization of the cult of Venus. 14) Religion in the Roman Empire. Polis, folk, personal, popular, vernacular religion. 15) Religion in the Roman Empire. Lived religion and urban religion. 16) Religion in the Roman Empire. Religious agency: space and time. 17) Religion in the Roman Empire. Cultural appropriation, religious experience, and the body. 18) Religion in the Roman Empire. Human-divine communication and materiality. 19) Religion in the Roman Empire. Performativity and theatricalization. 20) Religion in the Roman Empire. Polytheisms vs. Monotheisms? The construction of divine power. 21) ORAL PRESENTATIONS. 22) ORAL PRESENTATIONS. 23) Late Antiquity. The triumph of monotheisms; the dialectic of innovation and fundamentalism in Judaism; Jesus of Nazareth and the Pauline invention of a new religion; Christianity and classical philosophy. 24) Late Antiquity. Religious imperialisms and cultural renewal in the Mediterranean: Imperium Romanum; the Holy Land as a paradigm of long-term religious conflict; cultural foundations of Islamic monotheism. 25) Middle Ages. Ecological consciousness, lycanthropy, and processes of narrative creativity as forms of Christian implantation. 26) Middle and Early Modern Ages. Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Ethical-religious agents explaining a fragmented Europe; socioeconomic dynamics and ideological change; a multi-religious Europe on the margins of a multicultural Mediterranean. 27) Modern and Contemporary Ages. Global politics, regional imbalances, inequality, consciousness, conflict, armed struggle, terrorism: religion as a pretext. 28) CONCLUSIONS.

The teaching-learning process for the course is structured around an integrated combination of theoretical and practical activities, aimed at encouraging active participation, critical reflection, and intellectual autonomy among students. The main methodologies and learning activities are as follows: - Lectures delivered by the instructor, supported by digital and audiovisual resources, where the fundamental concepts of the subject will be presented, alongside specific bibliographic guidance to complement and enrich the students¿ independent learning. - Critical reading of selected texts, including articles from specialized press, reports, manuals, and academic studies, which will serve either as material for collective discussion in class or for individual work to consolidate the knowledge covered in theoretical sessions. - Resolution of practical cases and applied problems, proposed by the instructor and carried out individually or in groups, with the aim of promoting the contextual application of theoretical content, analytical thinking, and collaborative skills. - Personalized tutorials, designed to support the preparation of individual or group assignments and reports, as well as to clarify doubts and delve deeper into specific aspects of the syllabus according to the student's needs. - Oral presentations and class debates, moderated by the instructor, on topics related to the course content and the practical cases analyzed, in order to develop critical argumentation, reasoned dialogue, and synthesis skills. - Preparation of assignments and reports, either individually or collectively, aimed at assessing both the mastery of the subject matter and the students¿ capacity for critical analysis, independent research, and rigorous written expression.