Title Scenting salvation : ancient Christianity and the olfactory imagination / Susan Ashbrook Harvey

Published Berkeley : University of California Press, ©2006

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Description 1 online resource (xviii, 421 pages) Series The transformation of the classical heritage ; 42 The Joan Palevsky imprint in classical literature Transformation of the classical heritage ; 42. Joan Palevsky imprint in classical literature. Contents The olfactory context : smelling the early Christian world -- The Christian body : ritually fashioned experience -- Olfaction and Christian knowing -- Redeeming scents : ascetic models -- Sanctity and stench -- Resurrection, sensation, and knowledge Summary This book explores the role of bodily, sensory experience in early Christianity (first - seventh centuries AD) by focusing on the importance of smell in ancient Mediterranean culture. Following its legalization in the fourth century Roman Empire, Christianity cultivated a dramatically flourishing devotional piety, in which the bodily senses were utilized as crucial instruments of human-divine interaction. Rich olfactory practices developed as part of this shift, with lavish uses of incense, holy oils, and other sacred scents. At the same time, Christians showed profound interest in what smells could mean. How could the experience of smell be construed in revelatory terms? What specifically could it convey? How and what could be known through smell? Scenting Salvation argues that ancient Christians used olfactory experience for purposes of a distinctive religious epistemology: formulating knowledge of the divine in order to yield, in turn, a particular human identity. Using a wide array of Pagan, Jewish, and Christian sources, Susan Ashbrook Harvey examines the ancient understanding of smell through religious rituals, liturgical practices, mystagogical commentaries, literary imagery, homiletic conventions; scientific, medical, and cosmological models; ascetic disciplines, theological discourse, and eschatological expectations. In the process, she argues for a richer appreciation of ancient notions of embodiment, and of the roles the body might serve in religion Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-388) and indexes Notes Print version record Subject Smell -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- History Senses and sensation -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- History Odors Worship. Sacrifice. Smell. Smell Odorants odors. worship. smell (sense) RELIGION -- Christian Life -- General. HISTORY -- Ancient -- General. Smell Smell -- Religious aspects -- Christianity Odors Sacrifice Senses and sensation -- Religious aspects -- Christianity Worship Frühchristentum Geruchssinn Geruch Geruchswahrnehmung Religiöse Erfahrung Christliche Existenz Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780520931015 0520931017

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