"Man,
as he came from the hand of his maker, was poetic in both mind and
body, but the gross heathenism of Civilization has generally destroyed
nature and poetry, and all that is spiritual. I am tempted at times to
adopt the Calvinistic doctrine of total depravity."
The Contemplative John Muir
I find it fascinating to note that a high percentage of classical American Nature Writers and activists
were raised in the Protestant Reformed tradition, the one that
originated with the Puritans. This tradition includes denominations such
as the Congregational (now United Church of Christ), Presbyterian,
Unitarian, American Baptist, Disciples of Christ, and the Church of
Christ. Even though many of the environmental writers who were raised in
these traditions ended up jettisoning their childhood faith, the flavor
of Reformed spirituality stuck with them, motivating much of their
work. Examples are John Muir (Presbyterian and Disciples of Christ),
Sigurd Olson (Swedish Baptist, an offshoot of the American Baptist
Church) - and Annie Dillard, Rachel Carson, Robinson Jeffers, Edward
Abbey, David Brower and Dave Foreman, all of whom were raised
Presbyterian.
In one way or another, all of these writers and
activists continued the Puritan conviction that, while humanity is
basically deformed by "sin", the world of Nature remains a relatively
unspoiled sacred temple. For these authors and activists, the
Calvinistic belief in the "total depravity of man" is converted into a
tendency to see human beings - especially en masse, and particularity in
society's industrial phase - as basically greedy, short-sighted and
destructive of all that is good. These authors also continued the "fire
and brimstone" tradition of Reformed Spirituality, transforming the
passionate Puritan concern over personal evil into a condemnation of
societal evil. Muir, sounding increasingly like his fundamentalist
father in later life, referred to developers as "Satan," viewing them as
a modern embodiment of the "moneychangers" whom Christ drove out of the
Temple in Jerusalem.
In "American Wilderness: A New
History," historian Mark Stoll tells us that "Jeffers and Abbey took the
solitary Reformed love of wilderness and suspicion of man and his works
to the edge of misanthropy. Son of a Presbyterian minister, Jeffers
wrote brilliant poetry that celebrated nature and a transcendentalistic
God and denigrated man and his works as transient and even contemptible .
. . Abbey transmuted the Reformed fire-and-brimstone sermon into fiery,
cantankerous, if thoroughly secular defenses of wilderness and
condemnations of those who would develop it." David Brower, a major
figure in the Sierra Club, reminded some of his associates of Billy
Graham. In fact, Brower himself referred to his standard environmental
speech as "The Sermon." Dave Foreman, founder of "Earth First," aspired
early on to become a preacher in the Church of Christ, but then
transferred his energies to wilderness preservation. His secular yet
evangelical speaking style has been described as "rabble-rousing,
foot-stomping, fundamentalist-preacher speechifying."
With the
recent waning of the popularity of Reformed churches and the dramatic
increase in age of the average backcountry user, Mark Stoll wonders what
kind of future the tradition of wilderness spiritual activism has. As
he says, "The growing Protestant denominations, including Pentecostal,
Southern Baptist, and Mormon, propagate few doctrines productive of
wilderness spirituality. Has the nation seen the last Dillard, the last
Brower, the last Foreman?"
Perhaps the torch is passing to
writers influenced by Asian spirituality, like Gary Snyder? Will a
person like Pope Francis - whose spirituality is rooted in part in a
Franciscan love of Nature - or a contemplative environmental scholar
like David Backes encourage more Catholics to stand at the forefront of
concern for environmental issues? Will the growing number of those who
consider themselves "Interspiritual" - blending several different
spiritual traditions into one - raise up a community of modern John
Muirs or Sigurd Olsons? Or - perhaps most importantly - will the
current upswing in "Nones" - those who answer "none" in surveys about
religious affiliation, yet who often find their spiritual sustenance in
Nature - become the prominent environmental activists of the future?
Photo: Red cliffs with Ponderosa Pine trees killed by the human-caused Galena fire; Lory State Park, CO; December 11, 2013
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