New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture: Christianity and the Arboreal Imagination

Arentzen, Thomas; Burrus, Virginia; Peers, Glenn

This book examines the many ways Byzantines lived with their trees. It takes seriously theological and hagiographic tree engagement as expressions of that culture’s deep involvement—and even fascination—with the arboreal. These pages tap into the current attention paid to plants in a wide range of scholarship, an attention that involves the philosophy of plant life as well as scientific discoveries of how communicative trees may be, and how they defend themselves. Considering writings on and images of trees from Late Antiquity and medieval Byzantium sympathetically, the book argues for an arboreal imagination at the root of human aspirations to know and draw close to the divine. 

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2022-07-13

Format: Paperback

ISBN-13: 9783030759049

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-75902-5

Dimensions: 210cm x148cm

Pages: 190