The Areopagus Trick: Paul, Athens, and the «Dilemma of Perception»

Bridging archaeological theoretical reflections on the urban religious «dilemma of perception» with sociological insights into issues of visibility, this article examines how early Christian writers harnessed urban sensory saturation to obscure, blur, or distort the visibility of other religions. It focuses on a single passage: Paul’s visit to Athens, culminating in the so-called Areopagus speech, as portrayed in the canonized Acts of the Apostles.