Ecologizing Late Ancient and Byzantine Worlds

Laura Borghetti is a Doctoral Candidate in Byzantine Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany.Thomas Arentzen is a Reader in Church History at Lund University, Sweden, and Associate Professor at Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology, Sweden.

• 1. Weathering: Ancient Worlds Exposed, Thomas Arentzen (St Ignatios College, Sweden) & Laura Borghetti (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany)2. Fieldwork: Following Saint Hilarion, Virginia Burrus (Syracuse University, USA)3. Night: An Ancient Monastic Ecology of Darkness, Douglas E. Christie (Loyola Marymount University, USA)4. Edges: Coasts, Riverbanks, and Waterscapes in Late Ancient Texts, Marco Formisano (Ghent University, Belgium)5. Dream: The Cultural Ecology of Dreaming in Artemidorus’ Oneirocritica, Christopher Schliephake (University of Augsburg, Germany)6. Energies: Wind, Water and the Literary Ecosystem in a Twelfth-Century Byzantine Novel, Laura Borghetti (University of Mainz, Germany)7. Behold!: The Equivocal Ecopoetics of Wonder in Late Ancient Homilies on Creation, Kate Rigby (University of Cologne, Germany)8. Agency: A Core Concept in the Cultural History of Human-Animal Relations, Tristan Schmidt (University of Katowice, Poland)9. Crocodiles: Frightening Reptiles and Monastic Imagination, Ingvild Sælid Gilhus (University of Bergen, Norway)10. Physiologizing: The Meaning of Species Un/Ravelled, Thomas Arentzen (Uppsala University, Sweden)11. Feast!: Venantius Fortunatus’ Poetic Feasts, Leila Williamson (Ghent University, Belgium)12. Thicket: Trees and Belief in Britain after Rome, Michael D. J. Bintley (University of Southampton, UK) 13. Medianature: Dirt, Stone, Water, and Sky as Representational Fields, Glenn Peers (Syracuse University, USA)NotesReferencesIndex

More than just a study of Byzantine environmental ideology and history, these scholarly meditations are also a reckoning with the Anthropocene, our own era of global warming and mass extinction, offering glimpses into other ways of being in the world from which we could perhaps learn.