|
" The Gospel According to this Moment: "
Alan D. Hodder
| Document Type
|
:
|
AL
|
| Record Number
|
:
|
1081527
|
| Doc. No
|
:
|
LA125156
|
| Call No
|
:
|
10.1163/156852911X580793
|
| Language of Document
|
:
|
English
|
| Main Entry
|
:
|
Alan D. Hodder
|
| Title & Author
|
:
|
The Gospel According to this Moment: [Article] : Thoreau, Wildness, and American Nature Religion\ Alan D. Hodder
|
| Publication Statement
|
:
|
Leiden: Brill
|
| Title of Periodical
|
:
|
Religion and the Arts
|
| Date
|
:
|
2011
|
| Volume/ Issue Number
|
:
|
15/4
|
| Page No
|
:
|
460–485
|
| Abstract
|
:
|
Ever since the Sierra Club adopted the slogan, “In wildness is the preservation of the world,” the text from which it was drawn—Thoreau’s 1862 essay “Walking”—has been construed as a tribute to wild places. To some extent this reading keeps faith with sentiments expressed in the essay. At the same time, a closer look suggests that the essay as a whole is really more about the life of the spirit than life in the wild. Despite the popular appropriation of “Walking” as a manifesto of environmentalist advocacy, some critics have questioned the usual view of “Walking.” Such observations also have a bearing on Thoreau’s legacy as a progenitor of the literary expression of American nature spirituality. The purpose of this essay is to elucidate a particular experiential orientation to this spiritually-inflected notion of wildness, beginning with Thoreau and extending into the work of three literary exemplars of American nature religion—John Muir, Edward Abbey, and Annie Dillard. Ever since the Sierra Club adopted the slogan, “In wildness is the preservation of the world,” the text from which it was drawn—Thoreau’s 1862 essay “Walking”—has been construed as a tribute to wild places. To some extent this reading keeps faith with sentiments expressed in the essay. At the same time, a closer look suggests that the essay as a whole is really more about the life of the spirit than life in the wild. Despite the popular appropriation of “Walking” as a manifesto of environmentalist advocacy, some critics have questioned the usual view of “Walking.” Such observations also have a bearing on Thoreau’s legacy as a progenitor of the literary expression of American nature spirituality. The purpose of this essay is to elucidate a particular experiential orientation to this spiritually-inflected notion of wildness, beginning with Thoreau and extending into the work of three literary exemplars of American nature religion—John Muir, Edward Abbey, and Annie Dillard.
|
| Descriptor
|
:
|
American nature religion
|
| Descriptor
|
:
|
American nature writing
|
| Descriptor
|
:
|
Annie Dillard
|
| Descriptor
|
:
|
Edward Abbey
|
| Descriptor
|
:
|
Henry David Thoreau
|
| Descriptor
|
:
|
John Muir
|
| Descriptor
|
:
|
wildness
|
| Location & Call number
|
:
|
10.1163/156852911X580793
|
| |