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Religion is a fundamental aspect of our reconstructions of the late antique world. Literary and theological texts present everyday life in Late Antiquity as a ‘world full of gods’, in which religious conflict defines the interaction between members of religious groups. This article examines late antique papyrus letters as sources for everyday life experience, highlighting on the one hand the open religious diversity and on the other hand the absence of daily melodramatic religious conflict. Through an analysis of three sets of papyri, we zoom in on the situational performance of religious identities of a fourth-century Egyptian priest, a flax merchant, and a Manichaean textile trader. To properly understand their letters – as well as their religious identity – we should employ the help of current ideas about religion, identity, and groups in the study of religion.
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