2016/09/05 by Ailsa Hunt · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #Ancient history #Art #Art history #Biblical Studies and Interpretation #Classics #Cult #Epistemology #Historical and Architectural Studies #History #Interpretation (philosophy) #Linguistics #Literature #Meaning (existential) #Phenomenon #Philosophy #Portrait #Religion and Society Interactions #Religious Tourism and Spaces #Roman Empire
paper · doi:10.1017/cbo9781316597859
openalex publication_date 2016/09/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
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