The Residue of Eden: Myth and Medicine in Early Christian Anointing Practices, lecture by John Penniman (Bucknell University), Byzantine Dialogues from the Gennadius Library, American School of Classical Studies at Athens and Zoom, March 8, 2022, 7:00 pm (Greece) / 12:00 pm (ET)

Olive oil was one of the most popular pharmacological substances in the ancient Mediterranean world. It appears pervasively in medical handbooks, magical incantations, cultic healing rituals, hygiene guidelines, and accessories for personal adornment. As a drug (pharmakon) with wide application, olive oil provides an interesting case study for exploring the borderlands between religious ritual and medical regimen.

This talk will offer a re-interpretation of the literary and material evidence surrounding early Christian anointing practices in light of the pharmacological power of olive oil. Moving between medical, magical, and cultic contexts in the broader Greco-Roman world, Professor Penniman will first explore the particular potencies that olive oil was thought to possess. Then, he will analyze how olive oil was moralized, medicalized, and mythologized within the early Christian community’s understanding of its own practices. Next, he will look at the material evidence of anointing from late ancient Christianity, with particular attention to the use of ampullae (or pilgrim flasks). Finally, Professor Penniman will consider how we might re-interpret these objects in light of a pharmacological approach to olive oil and will suggest that the ritual efficacy of early Christian practices -such as anointing- depended upon the pharmacological efficacy of the drugs that Christians used.  

John Penniman is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses in the history of Christianity and in theories of religion. His research focuses on the religious world of late antiquity, with particular interest in the development of early Christianity out of the cultural worlds of Greece and Rome. He is currently an NEH Fellow at the ASCSA.  

Advance registration required.