Little Big Gods: Morality of the Supernatural in Lydian and Phrygian Confession Inscriptions

The article offers a new perspective on the discussion on the birth of the so-called big gods, represented by the omnipotent agents of Abrahamic religions. The development of morally interested gods has been connected to the rise of upper social classes in complex societies with a need for religiously based ethics during the Axial Age (600 BCE to 100 CE). However, while masses continued to believe in potent yet amoral supernatural agents, it is possible that the morally interested gods preceded the large-scale societies and, rather, helped build them. The article argues that a group of second- and third-century confession inscriptions from traditional cults of Asia Minor prove that the morally interested big gods may have evolved also during crises in rural contexts.