Devoted to Nature: The Religious Roots of American Environmentalism

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.

Author: Evan Berry
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 07/21/2015
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9780520285736
ISBN10: 0520285735
BISAC Categories:
- History | Social History
- Science | Environmental Science (see also Chemistry | Environmental)
- Religion | Christian Theology | General

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