Reviving Roman Religion: Sacred Trees in the Roman World (Cambridge Classical Studies)
Cambridge University Press, 9/12/2016
EAN 9781107153547, ISBN10: 1107153549
Hardcover, 342 pages, 22.9 x 14.6 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Sacred trees are easy to dismiss as a simplistic, weird phenomenon, but this book argues that in fact they prompted sophisticated theological thinking in the Roman world. Challenging major aspects of current scholarly constructions of Roman religion, Ailsa Hunt rethinks what sacrality means in Roman culture, proposing an organic model which defies the current legalistic approach. She approaches Roman religion as a 'thinking' religion (in contrast to the ingrained idea of Roman religion as orthopraxy) and warns against writing the environment out of our understanding of Roman religion, as has happened to date. In addition, the individual trees showcased in this book have much to tell us which enriches and thickens our portraits of Roman religion, be it about the subtleties of engaging in imperial cult, the meaning of numen, the interpretation of portents, or the way statues of the Divine communicate.
1. Rooting in
why give time to sacred trees?
2. A brief history of tree-thinking
the enduring power of animism
3. How arboreal matter matters
rethinking sacrality through trees
4. Arboriculture and arboreal deaths
rethinking sacrality again
5. Confronting arboreal agency
reading the Divine in arboreal behaviour
6. Imagining the gods
how trees flesh out the identity of the Divine
7. Branching out
what sacred trees mean for Roman religion.