In his chapter on Greek religion and Greek culture, Jon Mikalson attempts to draw distinctions between the aspects of Greek life that were heavily influenced by religion and those that were almost entirely secular. In this attempt, Mikalson places himself at odds with many scholars on the topic who hold that religion touched all aspects of Greek life. The sense that I got from reading the chapter was that each aspect was influenced by religion in some way, some more so than others. For example, the Greek government buildings were architecturally similar to the temples, and the meetings were opened with a prayer and an offering. After which, business at these meetings was purely secular. There was an excerpt from Socrates that explained how in many ways this was because it was important for humans to use the skills and abilities the gods had given them in order to handle their own affairs. The subtopic regarding Localism, Nationalism, and Polytheism was of particular interest to me because of our discussion on Tuesday regarding how religious traditions interacted. As each locality had its own gods and goddesses, it is surprising that there was not a higher degree of religious conflict. According to Mikalson, “There was never a crusade by one Greek city-state to impose its gods or cultic system on another, and there is no evidence that there were even proselytizing efforts in this regard.” It appears that to the people of Ancient Greece it was more important to respect the gods of someone else than to attempt to claim yours as superior.