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.
Author(s): Ailsa Hunt
Series: Cambridge Classical Studies
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: 342
City: Cambridge
Cover
Half-title
Series information
Title page
Copyright information
Dedication
Table of contents
List of figures
Acknowledgements
1 Rooting in
What is a sacred tree?
Thinking theologically through trees
Roman religion: sources and methodology
A plan for growth
2 A brief history of tree thinking
Tree thinking: getting back to roots
Arboreal ardour
Arboreal analysis
Tree thinking: propagating the tradition
Tree thinking today
3 How arboreal matter matters
Tree worship
Sacred wood
Memorial matter: the many faces of the ficus Ruminalis
The secret history of the ficus Ruminalis
The sacrality of the ficus Ruminalis
4 Arboriculture and arboreal deaths
Approaching arboriculture
Piacular pruning in the Arval grove
Conceptualising crises
Conceptualising crises (again)
5 Confronting arboreal agency
Numina and nymphs
Arboreal portents
6 Imagining the gods
Gods and tree types
Arboreal epithets
Arboreal statues
Trees in cult space
7 Branching out
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
