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Westermayer, Matthew Haines-Eitzen, Kimberly Mokhtarian, Jason Platt, Verity 2024-10-16T20:19:53Z 2024-10-16T20:19:53Z 2023-12 ProQuest Submission ID: 14037 ProQuest Publication ID: 30689568 https://hdl.handle.net/1813/115759 http://doi.org/10.7298/yesr-5112 16454784 220 pages This dissertation shows how trees, and practices performed upon them, helped Christians and others in late antiquity understand both themselves and the arboreal world. A tactile relationship with trees shaped cultural, religious, and philosophical knowledge to such an extent that articulations of salvation, nature, pleasure, and identity can no longer be considered solely mental or anthropic. The arboreal helped these notions take root. By examining different modes of arboreal practice, such as grafting, harvesting, and felling, and how these acts brought people into relation with the tree, this project argues that the arboreal world was dynamically alluring in late antiquity. There are deeply empirical roots of what has heretofore been considered the residue of symbolism or abstract theological speculation. Identity, salvation, and pleasure—the three major threads of this project—are coterminous with arboreal practices. Late ancient Christianity, therefore, is not anti-arboreal, or apathetic to the natural world, but rather in a tense and productive relationship with that world. This relationship is seen across Syriac, Latin, and Greek writers, with chapters devoted to Ephrem the Syriac, Augustine of Hippo, and Origen of Alexandria. These writers, far from being unique, offer us a gaze onto the tree as a meaningful other in cultural and ecological life. en Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Christianity Late Antiquity Practice Trees Amidst the Trees: Encountering the Arboreal in Late Antiquity dissertation or thesis https://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/16454784 application/pdf Near Eastern Studies Cornell University Doctor of Philosophy Ph. D., Near Eastern Studies https://hdl.handle.net/1813/59810.2 Publication Cornell Theses and Dissertations Westermayer, Matthew 5893a6ea-7af3-41d7-abc6-04bcd26ab5df open.access open.access <Publication xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/1.1/" id="07331a3b-cea9-42eb-91d6-29d63ada6e02"> <Type xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/vocab/COAR_Publication_Types">http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843</Type> <Language>en</Language> <Title>Amidst the Trees: Encountering the Arboreal in Late Antiquity</Title> <PublishedIn> <Publication> </Publication> </PublishedIn> <PublicationDate>2023-12</PublicationDate> <DOI>http://doi.org/10.7298/yesr-5112</DOI> <Authors> <Author> <DisplayName>Westermayer, Matthew</DisplayName> <Affiliation> <OrgUnit> </OrgUnit> </Affiliation> </Author> </Authors> <Editors> </Editors> <Publishers> <Publisher> <OrgUnit /> </Publisher> </Publishers> <License>https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/</License> <Keyword>Christianity</Keyword> <Keyword>Late Antiquity</Keyword> <Keyword>Practice</Keyword> <Keyword>Trees</Keyword> <Abstract>This dissertation shows how trees, and practices performed upon them, helped Christians and others in late antiquity understand both themselves and the arboreal world. A tactile relationship with trees shaped cultural, religious, and philosophical knowledge to such an extent that articulations of salvation, nature, pleasure, and identity can no longer be considered solely mental or anthropic. The arboreal helped these notions take root. By examining different modes of arboreal practice, such as grafting, harvesting, and felling, and how these acts brought people into relation with the tree, this project argues that the arboreal world was dynamically alluring in late antiquity. There are deeply empirical roots of what has heretofore been considered the residue of symbolism or abstract theological speculation. Identity, salvation, and pleasure—the three major threads of this project—are coterminous with arboreal practices. Late ancient Christianity, therefore, is not anti-arboreal, or apathetic to the natural world, but rather in a tense and productive relationship with that world. This relationship is seen across Syriac, Latin, and Greek writers, with chapters devoted to Ephrem the Syriac, Augustine of Hippo, and Origen of Alexandria. These writers, far from being unique, offer us a gaze onto the tree as a meaningful other in cultural and ecological life.</Abstract> <Access xmlns="http://purl.org/coar/access_right" > </Access> </Publication>