Devoted to Nature - The Religious Roots of American Environmentalism

1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-0-520-28572-9
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Cloth Over Boards, Format (B × H): 151 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 510 g

Devoted to Nature explores the religious underpinnings of American environmentalism, tracing the theological character of American environmental thought from its Romantic foundations to contemporary nature spirituality. During the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, religious sources were central to the formation of the American environmental imagination, shaping ideas about the natural world, establishing practices of engagement with environments and landscapes, and generating new modes of social and political interaction. Building on the work of seminal environmental historians who acknowledge the environmental movement’s religious roots, Evan Berry offers a potent theoretical corrective to the narrative that explained the presence of religious elements in the movement well into the twentieth century. In particular, Berry argues that an explicitly Christian understanding of salvation underlies the movement’s orientation toward the natural world. Theologically derived concepts of salvation, redemption, and spiritual progress have not only provided the basic context for Americans’ passion for nature but have also established the horizons of possibility within the national environmental imagination.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Berry, Evan

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionssoziologie und -psychologie, Spiritualität, Mystik
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie Ethik, Moraltheologie, Sozialethik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Angewandte Ethik & Soziale Verantwortung Umweltethik, Umweltphilosophie
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltsoziologie, Umweltpsychologie, Umweltethik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Religionssoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Whither Religion?

1. Recreation and Soteriology
2. Congregating around Nature
3. Sacred Space and the American Environmental Imagination
4. Recreation and Spiritual Experience
Conclusion: The Mechanics of Religious Change

Notes
For Further Reading and Research
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Evan Berry is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at American University and Codirector of its Ethics, Peace, and Global Affairs master's program.