Ritual and Earthquakes in Constantinople: Liturgy, Ecology, and Empire (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781009427289)

Located on the North Anatolian Fault, Constantinople was frequently shaken by earthquakes over the course of its history. This book discusses religious responses to these events between the fourth and the tenth century AD. The church in Constantinople commemorated several earthquakes that struck the city, prescribing an elaborate liturgical rite celebrated annually for each occasion. These rituals were means by which city-dwellers created meaning from disaster and renegotiated their relationships to God and the land around them in the face of its most destabilizing ecological characteristic: seismicity. Mark Roosien argues that ritual and theological responses to earthquakes shaped Byzantine conceptions of God and the environment and transformed Constantinople's self-understanding as the capital of the oikoumene and center of divine action in history. The book enhances our understanding of Byzantine Christian religion and culture, and provides a new, interdisciplinary framework for understanding Byzantine views of the natural world.

Author: Mark Roosien
ISBN-10: 1009427288
ISBN-13: 9781009427289
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/14/2024
Pages: 218
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.02lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d