Sensing More in Ancient religion

Abstract

This essay uses three examples to demonstrate the importance of the physical senses for ancient Christianity. First, I consider the fifth century Christian historian Sozomen on the nature of ancient religion and its practices. Second, religious sound is explored as intrinsic to the practice of hymn singing and also as a source of religious knowledge. Finally, Romanos the Melodist, the sixth century Greek hymn writer, uses sensory imagery to present religious knowledge in its most basic cosmological formulation.