Inner Purity and Pollution in Greek Religion

Was Ancient Greek religion really ''mere ritualism''? Early Christians denounced the pagans for the disorderly plurality of their cults, and reduced Greek religion to ritual and idolatry; protestant theologians condemned the pagan ''religion of form'' (with Catholicism as its historical heir). For a long time, scholars tended to conceptualize Greek religion as one in which belief did not matter, a...