Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination

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,...