Abstract
The martyr Perpetua's declaration, “I am a Christian”, is a point of departure for the invention of religion in the familiar sense of beliefs and practices chosen, rather than as the ritual and piety characteristic of, and universal in, ancient Mediterranean societies. By implication this means the appearance of the secular also. This study explores early Christian evidence from Perpetua and Tertullian and, after the Constantinian revolution, Augustine. This history of reflection on the relationship between belief and identity has interpretive significance for the changing character of religion, and of the secular, in Australian society today.
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