RELIGION AND NATURE
in NORTH AMERICA, FALL 2016
"Without a fascination with the grandeur of the North American continent,
the energy needed for its preservation will never be developed"
~ Thomas Berry
SECTIONS
REL 3103 & 5199: Thursday, Period 9-11 (4:05-7:05p.m.), Flint Hall, Room 119
INSTRUCTOR
Professor Bron Taylor (Ph.D.)
Email: bron@religion.ufl.edu 
Office: Anderson 121
Office hours: Thursday 1:00-3:00 and by appointment
DESCRIPTION
Brief Course Description (in UF Catalogue)
Investigation of the ways that “religion” and “nature” have evolved and influenced one another during the cultural, political, and environmental history of North America since European Contact.
Précis
Clearcut OregonThis course critically examines the roles played by “religion” and “nature” during the evolution of the cultural, political, and environmental history of North America. Specifically, it considers questions such as:
  • What are the various and contested ways terms such as “religion” and “nature” are understood, and do such understandings enhance or constrain our ability to apprehend their reciprocal influence in American cultural, political, and environmental history?
  • Have the habitats of North America shaped human consciousness, including “religious” or “spiritual” perceptions, ritualizing, and ethical practices, and if so, how? This question will be in mind throughout the course, from an examination of the cultures of the continent’s “first peoples,” to religionists, environmentalists and scientists in the 20th century.
  • How and to what extent have religions of various sorts influenced human behavior in ways that contributed to the transformation of North American ecosystems?
  • What roles have religiously-shaped concepts of nature played in American political history? For example, how have notions such as “natural theology” “natural law” and understandings of “sacred nature” influenced social life and natural systems during the history of the United States?
  • How have religion-related nature discourses, attitudes, and practices been shaped by, and shaped European cultures, and later, by such developments in international spheres?
Yosemite Valley
Albert Bierstadt, "Yosemite Valley", 1866
The course will draw on diverse sources, including ethnographies and other studies pertinent to America's aboriginal peoples, environmental histories that attend to the role of religion in landscape transformations, primary texts written by the figures most responsible for watersheds in the "religion and ecology" ferment in America, scholarly examinations of these figures and their influence, as well as studies of social movements engaged in the "greening of religion" or conversely, resisting religion-inspired environmentalism. A variety of theoretical issues and background articles, including biographies of many of the central figures to be examined, will be provided from The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (2005). Students will complete the course with a broad knowledge of nature-related American religious history, acquainted both with pivotal figures, movements, and critical questions.
Course Outline and Learning Modules
Notch of the White Mountains
Thomas Cole, 1839
"A View of the Mountain Pass Called
the Notch of the White Mountains"
  1. Religion & Nature with Early European Contacts (1000-1600)
    1. The arrival, first of the Norse, then the Spanish and other European peoples, set in motion dramatic and sometimes devastating changes to the land, its first inhabitants, and the new immigrants. Religion had much to do with the character of these encounters and these changes.
  2. The Colonial Period (1600-1775)
    1. Fear, Ambivalence, and the Stirrings of Reverence toward Nature in the Colonial Period to the Founding of the Republic (ca. 1600-1776).
    2. Religion & the Ideology of Manifest Destiny as the violent collision of European and Native American Religious Cultures escalate.
  3. Early Republic to the End of the Frontier (ca. 1780 to 1890)
    1. The subjugation of wild peoples and places (continued).
    2. The European tributary of aesthetic, religious, and romantic attachments toward nature,
      1. Transcendentalism and romantic theologies of correspondence.
      2. Wildness and wilderness emerge as nature religion.
  4. The End of the Frontier to Earth Day (1880-1970)Ricardo Lewis
    1. Forest Reserves & National Parks; Scouting and Indian Guides.
    2. Nature writing, Back to the Land Movements, and early "post-supernaturalistic spiritualities of connection."
    3. the Land Ethic (1948), Sea Mysticism & Silent Spring (1962).
    4. "The Historic Roots of our Ecologic Crisis" (1967) and the turn toward the indigenous cultures of Turtle Island (1969) and those originating in Asia.
  5. Religion and Nature from Earth Day & the Age of Environmentalism (1970 to present)
    1. Asian, Pagan, and Native American Spiritualities as Nature Religions.
    2. the "Greening" of some factions of the World's Major Religions.
    3. The growth of Scientific Nature Religion, including Systems Ecology and the Odumites; Conservation Biology and Restoration Ecology; "Intelligent Design" and its variants; and the Consecration of Scientific Narratives in Cosmos, The Epic of Evolution, & the Universe Story
    4. Environmentalism and Religion
    5. Reactionary Responses
    6. International Dimensions and Future Trends
READINGS
Big SurNote: most of the required books can be found inexpensively from online and other used booksellers. Wherever available, required book readings will also be available on reserve at the library. Additional articles will be available online via links found in the course schedule.
Required Texts (graduate and undergraduate sections)
  • Albanese, Catherine L. Nature Religion in America: From the Algonkian Indians to the New Age. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1990.
  • Deloria, Vine (Jr.). God Is Red: A Native View of Religion. Updated ed. Golden, Colorado: 1972; reprint, Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum, 1994.
  • Nash, Roderick Frazier. Wilderness and the American Mind. 4th ed. 1967; reprint, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967.
  • Pike, Sarah. New Age and Neopagan Religions in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
Additional Required Readings for Graduate Section
  • Stoll, Mark. Inherit the Holy Mountain: Religion and the Rise of American Environmentalism. Oxford University Press, 2015. Note, this book replaces John Gatta's Making Nature Sacred: Literature, Religion, and Environment in America from the Puritans to the Present. Oxford University Press, 2004.
  • Gould, Rebecca Kneale. At Home in Nature: Modern Homesteading and Spiritual Practice in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005.
  • Sears, John. Sacred Places: American Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth Century. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR PURCHASE; SELECTIONS REQUIRED OR RECOMMENDED:
  • Old Faithful
    Albert Bierstadt, "Old Faithful", 1886
    Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1986 (reprint); also in Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Edited by Brooks Atkinson. New York: The Modern Library, 2000. Or Essays and Lectures (includes Nature) Library of America, 1983.
  • Muir, John. Nature Writings. Edited by William Cronon. New York: Library of America, 1997. This is the best single volume of Muir's writings and it belongs in religion and nature scholars libraries.
  • Thoreau, Henry David. There are many editions; two from the Library of America are nicely produced, 1985 & 2004
Supplementary Primary Texts
  • Burroughs, John. Accepting the Universe. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920. Commemorative Edition, George W. Lugg, ed., reprint of 1920 publication; Moore Haven, Florida: Rainbow Books, 1987, or 2001 edition from Fredonia Books; and Time and Change (the Complete Writings of John Burroughs). Amsterdam: Fredonia Books, 2001
  • Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. New York City: Houghton Mifflin, 1962; The Sea Around Us. New York: Oxford University Press, 1950; Under the Sea Wind. New York: Dutton, 1991; The Edge of the Sea. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1955. Carson, Rachel. Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachael Carson. Edited by Linda Lear. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998.
  • Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1986 (reprint); also in Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Edited by Brooks Atkinson. New York: The Modern Library, 2000.
  • Eiseley, Loren. The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature. New York: Vintage, 1959; The Firmament of Time. New York: Atheneum, 1960; The Invisible Pyramid. New York: Scribners, 1970; The Unexpected Universe. New York: Harcourt, 1972; The Star Thrower (anthology). New York: Harcourt/Harvest, 1979; All the Strange Hours. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
  • Jefferson, Thomas, Notes on the State of Virginia, Penguin Classics, 1998.
  • Leopold, Aldo. The Sand County Almanac with Essays from Round River. Oxford: 1949; reprint, New York: Sierra Club and Balentine Books, 1971.
  • Muir, John. Nature Writings: The Story of by Boyhood and Youth; My First Summer in the Sierra; The Mountains of California; Stickeen; Essays. Edited by William Cronon. New York: Library of America, 1997.
STUDENTS MAY PROPOSE A VARIETY OF OTHER FIGURES, TO NAME A FEW POSSIBILITIES:
Willa Cather, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, Gifford Pinchot, Ernest Thompson Seton, Sarah Orne Jewett, Theodore Roosevelt, Ansel Adams, David Brower, Mable Osgood Wright. Moreover, although the first priority in this class is to help students understand the premium on this class is to focus on the period leading up to 1970, Earth Day, and the Age of Ecology, I will consider proposals to focus on more recent figures including: Edward Abbey, Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, Denise Levertov, Joy Harjo, Robinson Jeffers, Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, Gary Snyder, Starhawk, Terry Tempest Williams, Alice Walker, E.O. Wilson. Feel free to make your own proposals.
REQUIREMENTS
Undergraduate Section
Cole Thomas:Indian Sacrifice
Thomas Cole, "Indian Sacrifice", 1826
  • This is a reading-intensive class so a high priority will be placed on the quality of preparation, participation, and thus also attendance (30%). To ensure careful preparation, there will be regular, unannounced, quizzes held in class based on the readings, or, students will be asked to submit by email, normally no later than midnight Tuesday (otherwise by announcement), a 300-500 word summary of the major arguments being articulated in the major reading, and identify major fault lines and competing perspectives. The weeks in which these short essays will be required will be announced in class, by email, or placed in the reading schedule; so pay attention!
  • Multiple choice in class & take home essay mid term exam (30%); see class schedule for details.
  • Multiple choice and short answer final exam (40%); see class schedule for details.
Important Notes
This course is a hybrid, including both upper-level undergraduate and a graduate student sections. This has both disadvantages and advantages, but the course has been designed to amplify the advantages. It may be necessary to make adjustments to course readings and requirements along the way. The online version of this syllabus is the operative and binding version, so it is imperative that you use the online version, rather than versions printed out earlier in the class.
The quality of this course depends on the preparation and insights of every participant. Only in exigent circumstances may students be absent, and the instructor should be informed of any absence before the class that is missed, unless health and safety prevents such notice. Students are expected to be punctual, for this expresses courtesy and respect for your colleagues and prevents repetition of material presented in class.
Graduate Section
This course is a luxury in that the premium in it is the reading of primary and secondary sources that you will likely not have the opportunity to do in a similar way unless your research takes you in these directions. Consequently, it is what I call a ‘readings’ course. This means I do not require a research paper. Rather, I prioritize careful reading and class preparation, in-class presentations, and exams, which provide an opportunity to demonstrate careful reading and analytical insights. Here are the specific assignments:
  • Grand CanyonConsistent attendance, quality of preparation, & participation (15%). Normally, by no later than Wednesday evening (otherwise by announcement), students are to email a 500-800 word summary of the major arguments being articulated in the major readings, with some reflection on the relationship among these arguments and other currents in the class, first in other readings from that week, and then, with regard to other theoretical streams they are encountering. In other words, after articulating the arguments being advanced and what is at stake with regard to them, you are to identify the fault lines and competing perspectives that are emerging and make connections among the various understandings. If the key readings are not argumentative, then you should describe the perspective(s) presented and note connections among this week’s and prior readings. Remember that the course has to do with religion and nature in America, so you should be especially alert to and engaged in analysis of the religious dimensions of the arguments, figures, movements, and so on, that appear in your readings. In fall of 2013 you will also be regularly called upon to explain and interpret readings that the undergraduates have not had in their assignments.
  • Whole Earth CatalogBiographical, Movement Research, or Controversy Analysis (& related classroom presentation). (15%) Each student will either (1) read the major writings of and about seminal figures or (2) read about movements critical to the America’s religion and nature ferment, and then, provide written, and if time allows, oral reports to the classroom, as negotiated with and scheduled through agreement with the instructor. In your presentations you should endeavor to situate the subject within the broader cultural ferment of the time. Presentations focused on individuals will include the reading of biographies (see course bibliography for some examples). A third option will be to read into a critical controversy, such as related to Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” and its “New Western History” detractors, analyzing the controversy’s relevance to this course’s critical questions. Whatever else they do, all presentations will bring the same sorts of critical questioning to these analyses as identified under #1, above.
  • Mid term exam with in-class and take-home essay components (30%)
  • Final exam: with in-class and essay dimensions specified in the course schedule (40%).
Alternative: Students wishing to write a standard research paper may do so, replacing this for assignment #2, above. In such a case both exams, and the research paper, will each be worth 30% of the course grade.
Important Notes
YosemiteThis course is an important one for Religion and Nature graduate students seeking competence in Occidental traditions in general and North America in particular. It is also an elective in the Religions in the Americas concentration. Given that other courses are offered that focus on Asian and Abrahamic religions, and do so making a priority of examining developments since 1970, the priority in this course is historical. The central objective is to illuminate broad cultural trends and nature-related practices and transformations, rather than attempting to survey the world's major religious traditions, and their natural dimensions, in America.
Course readings and requirements may be modified. The online version of this syllabus is the operative and binding version, so it is imperative that you use the online version, rather than versions printed out earlier in the class.
The quality of this seminar depends on the insights of every participant. Only in exigent circumstances may students be absent. In such cases, such an absence should be pre-approved by the instructor and the reasons documented. Students are also expected to be punctual, for this expresses courtesy and respect for your colleagues.
EVALUATION
Points Possible for Required Assignments
This chart shows the points it is possible to earn for each assignment:
UNDERGRADUATE SECTION
Assignment Points per Assignment Total Possible Points
Quizzes & Summaries 10 or 20 points each 150 (30%)
Midterm Exam 150 points 150 (30%)
Final Exam 200 points 200 (40%)
  Total Possible Points: 500 (100%)
GRADUATE SECTION
Assignment Points per Assignment Total Possible Points
Weekly Summaries 10-20 points each 75 (15%)
Research Presentation 75 points 75 (15%)
Midterm Exam 150 points 150 (30%)
Final Exam 200 points 200 (40%)
Total Possible Points: 500 (100%)
Calculating Grades
For both the midterm and final exams, the total number of points earned by each student will be divided by the total number earned by the highest-scoring student. The resulting percentage will be used to calculate each student’s grade for the course. Put in a formula, it looks like this:
the score of each individual student (your score)
(divided by) the highest score earned by a student
The percentage arrived at by means of this formula will be evaluated according to the following scale:
93% A
90% A-
87% B+
83% B
80% B-
77% C+
67% C
60% D
59% F
This kind of scoring is fairer than many other forms of grading because: (1) It is based on what students actually achieve rather than some preconceived standard held by the professor; (2) Each student can receive a high grade; (3) Hard-working students will not be penalized for staying in a demanding course full of industrious students. With a traditional curve, demanding courses that “weed out” less industrious students, leaving hard-working ones, can unintentionally harm good students putting them in competition with each other. This will not occur in this course. To further insure fairness, any extra credit points will be added to the individual student’s score, only after the highest score earned by a student has been established. This ensures that the extra credit earned will not increase the difficulty of the grading scale.

Course instructor reserves the right to lower or raise course grades based on classroom contributions or upon absences. Instructor also reserves the right to change course requirements. 
Late or Missing Assignments
Students who do not turn in study guides or reading analyses on the days they are collected will not receive points. The total number of points possible for the review essay will be reduced by 20% for each day it is late.
Returned Assignments
Assignments will usually be returned to students no later than one week after they were due. At the end of the semester, unreturned course work will be available for pickup in the Religion Department office in Anderson 107 for 30 days after the official date that grades are posted by the registrar. After this time, they will be recycled. 
Academic Dishonesty
Students engaged in any form of academic dishonesty, as defined under the “Academic Misconduct” section of the Student Honor Code, will be subject to other disciplinary measures. Students are expected to know what constitutes plagiarism and to understand and avoid inadvertent forms of it that can occur by cutting and pasting quotations from various texts on the world wide web and elsewhere.
SCHEDULE
Note: All readings are to be completed before the class date/week under which they are listed. This schedule is subject to change so rather than printing it, I recommend bookmarking this online syllabus and consulting it regularly. To flourish in this class you must read widely and carefully.
(Week 1) 25 August

Starting with a question: Does surfing (ocean not internet) have anything to do with religion, nature, and ethics in North America? If so, why?

Native American and European cultures and nature from contact to the end of the colonial period.
Readings (all)
Readings (grads)
Website (more examples)
The website providing complementary resources for the book Dark Green Religion has additional examples of Surfing Spirituality, including the Ross Cummings video (also immediately below), music, and slide shows.
(Week 2) 1 September
Note: All students will submit by the end of Tuesday, 6 September, an essay on the readings (through those below) according to the instructions provided above. Since these will cover two weeks, undergraduates may take up to 1,000 and graduates up 1,500 words. Focus especially on Albanese & Nash (and Grad Students also on Stoll).

Readings (below) will explore the entwinment of nature and religion attending the birth of the republic.

The documentary The Faithkeeper (Bill Moyers interview of Oren Lyons) will be made available; view during the first two weeks of the semester.
Readings (all)
Readings (grads)
  • Nash, Wilderness ..., "The Romantic Wilderness" and "An American Wilderness," pp. 44- 83 (ch. 3 & ch. 4)
  • Stoll, Inherit the Holy Mountain, Ch. 2 & 3
  • Recommended: Gatta, Making Nature Sacred, "Revelation to US: Green shoots of romantic religion in Antebellum America," pp. 71-99 (ch. 4)
  • From the ERNUnitarianismManifest Destiny
Recommended
(Week 3) 8 September

New streams of aesthetic and spiritual appreciation of nature emerge and evolve in the early republic's first century and to the end of the frontier.

Documentary: Segments from The National Parks: America's Greatest Idea (2009)
* Reading summaries due by the end of Tuesday, 13 September.
Readings (undergrads)
  • Nash, Wilderness ..., "The Romantic Wilderness" and "An American Wilderness," pp. 44- 83 (ch. 3 & ch. 4)
Readings (all)
Recommended
  • From the ERN: Thoreau, Henry David
  • Albanese, Nature Religion ..., re. "Wilderness and the Passing Show" (on Transcendental
    Religion), pp. 80-116 (ch. 3)
  • Gatta, Making Nature Sacred, "Variations on Nature: from the Old Manse to the White Whale," pp. 102-125 (ch. 5), which is about early 19th century poets and writers; and "Rare and delectable places: Thoreau‘s imagination of sacred space at Walden," pp. 127-142 (ch. 6)
Readings (grads)
  • John Sears, Sacred Places, re. nature appreciation and pilgrimage, first 1⁄2 19th century, pp. 1-71
  • Stoll, Inherit the Holy Mountain, Ch. 4
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature and other selections.
  • Henry David Thoreau, Selections from Bron Taylor‘s Thoreau Appendix in Dark Green Religion, which Dr. Taylor will provide via email)
  • Nash, Wilderness ..., "Preserve the Wilderness" and "Wilderness Preserved," pp. 96-121 (chs. 6 & 7 (read quickly)
  • From the ERN (European tributaries): Romanticism-in European HistoryRomanticism in European LiteratureRousseau, Jean-Jacques; (American manifestations): Romanticism-American; (See also a contemporary reading by a LDS scholar of the natural aspects of the teaching of Joseph Smith and others in the entry): Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints.
Websites
  • Cedar Grove, the National Park Service sponsored site devoted to Thomas Cole, and the Hudson River School of Art, which he founded.
  • The Catskill Archive, a site devoted to the history of the Catskill Mountains, has many images from Thomas Cole's paintings.
    * Note the differences between the various periods of his work, and the environmental and religious values in the paintings, as well as the view of environmental history implicit in them, especially in the "empire" series.
(Week 4) 15 September

John Muir and the ambivalent ethical legacy of American National Parks

Documentary: Segments from The National Parks: America's Greatest Idea (2009).
Assignment
  • Reading summaries due by the end of Tuesday, 20 September.
Readings (all)
Readings (grads)
Recommended
  • John Muir. Nature Writings. Edited by William Cronon. New York: Library of America, 1997. In addition to the required readings, strongly recommended are Stickeen, pp.553-571; and then skim widely, looking especially for his emerging biocentrism and ambivalent attitudes toward Native Americans, in "My First Summer in the Sierra*," pp. 147-309. [Note: this is the volume you should all get for your libraries]
  • Lynn Ross-Bryant. Pilgrimage to the National Parks: Religion and Nature in the United States, London: Routledge 2012
  • Kerry Mitchell, “Managing Spirituality: Public Religion in National Parks,” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 1/4 (2007): 431-49. For a more in-depth work see his Spirituality and the State: Managing Nature and Experience in America's National Parks, NYU Press 2016.
  • ERN: Miwok People
  • Dispossessing the Wilderness (the remaining chapters) pp. 24-100,* and Robert Keller and Michael Turek, Everglades National Park and the Seminole Problem, pp. 216-231, from American Indians and National Parks. Tucson: Arizona University Press, 1998.
(Week 5) 22 September

Theorizing "Dark Green Religion"

Documentary: Segments from The National Parks: America's Greatest Idea (2009)
Assignment
  • Reading summaries due by the end of Tuesday, 27 September.
Readings (all)
Readings (grads)
  • Stoll, Inherit the Holy Mountain, Ch. 8 & Conclusion.

-

Website (more examples)
  • The Dark Green Religion website has a variety of supplementary materials that students may enjoy perusing, including video, music, and images.
(Week 6) 29 September

Insights and corrections to the most prevalent narratives about religion and nature in North America from the emerging discipline of environmental history.

Documentary: American Values / American Wilderness (High Plains Films/2005)

No weekly analysis is due on 4 October but students should be ready to address the readings during the in-class and take home portions of their mid-term exam.

6 October: The in-class portion of the mid-term exam will be administered 6 October in class and the take home essay section will be distributed. The take-home essay will be due 13 October before class and submitted as a word or rich text document by email. Students not in class that day will receive a 1 grade deduction on the essay portion of the mid term.

Readings (all)
Recommended
  • Rebecca Gould, At Home in Nature, especially "Ambivalent Legacies II: Gender, Class, Nature, and Religion" 201-235.
  • ERN (recommended): Indian Guides; Nature Fakers ControversyErnest Thompson Seton Institute & Seton biography (Brief)
  • Eileen Smith-Cavros, 'Modern Black Churchgoers in Miami-Dade County, Florida: Place, Nature, and Memory, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 1/3: 351-70, 2007.
  • New books indirectly pertinent: Ian Finseth, (2009). Shades of green: visions of nature in the literature of American slavery, 1770-1860. University of Georgia Press, 2009; Diane Glave and Mark Stoll, eds. To love the wind and the rain: African Americans and environmental history. Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006.
(Week 7) 6 October

John Burroughs & Loren Eiseley: science & nature religion in the early & mid-20th century

Religion and resistance to Darwinian thought and scientific nature religion

Documentary: Thinking Like a Watershed (1998) (or next week)
Readings (all)
Readings (grads)
  • Rebecca Gould, At Home in Nature, pp. 1-138 (ch. 1-4).
Recommended

Students not in class on 13 October will receive a one grade deduction on the essay portion of the mid term that is due prior to that class.

(Week 8) 13 October

Aldo Leopold, the Wilderness Society, and the breakthrough of explicitly biocentric environmental ethics.

Recommended: Wild By Law (The American Experience/PBS, 1992): on Marshall, Leopold & Zanheiser and the Wilderness Society.

Documentary: Green Fire / Aldo Leopold (2011)

* Special note: Fall 2016, these documentaries (and the one on Rachel Carson listed next weeks) will be shown on 20 October during a special documentary festival.
Assignment
  • Reading summaries due by the end of Tuesday, 18 October. Since these will cover two weeks, undergraduates may take up to 1,000 and graduates up 1,500 words
Readings (all)
  • ERN: Environmental Ethics
  • Nash, Wilderness ..., "Aldo Leopold: Prophet," pp. 182-99, "Decisions for Permanence," pp. 200-237, (chs. 11-12)
  • Aldo Leopold, from A Sand County AlmanacForeword, Arizona and New Mexico (especially sub-section, Thinking like a Mountain) and The Land Ethic. (Note: The Oxford University Press edition (1949/1968) does not have Part III, which includes the Round River and Goose Music essays. For these, see the Ballentine Books (1970) paperback edition.
  • Strongly Recommended: read widely, esp. "A Sand County Almanac" and "Wilderness" and "Conservation Esthetic."
Readings (grads)
(Week 9) 20 October

Rachel Carson, the environmental Era, the environmental justice movement, and the rising influence of nature writing.

Documentary: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (The American Experience, 1993)

Assignment
  • Reading summaries due by the end of Tuesday, 25 October.
Readings (all)
Readings (grads)
Readings (grads/recommended)
(Week 10) 27 October

Developments from & since the 1960s.

Documentary: American Buffalo: Spirit of a Nation (PBS/Nature, 1998)
Assignment
  • No reading summaries due this week.
Readings (required)
  • ERN: Deloria, Vine Jr.
  • Vine Deloria (Jr.) God is Red (peruse/skim the entire book, reading carefully 1-113 (ch 1- 6), pp. 185-202 (ch 11); pp. 236-282 (ch. 14-16).
Readings (grads)
(Week 11) 3 November
Paganism and the New Age
Assignment
  • Reading summaries due by the end of Tuesday, 1 November. Since these will cover two weeks, undergraduates may take up to 1,000 and graduates up 1,500 words. Focus especially on Native American traditions and Paganism.
Readings (all)
Readings (grads)
  • Pike, Sarah. New Age and Neopagan Religions in America (pp. 3-172)
Documentary
(Week 12) 10 November
Wilderness victories and the intensification of social conflict over nature religions, wildlands, and sacred space claims.
Assignments
  • Reading summaries due by the end of Tuesday, 8 November; focus on the religious dimensions of radical environmentalism and wilderness protection movements.
Readings (all)
Readings (grads)
Documentaries
  • Wrenched: How Edward Abbey lit the flame of environmental activism and gave the movement its soul (2014)
  • Rage over Trees (Audubon, 1994)
  • Pickaxe (Independent, 2000)
  • Road Use Restricted (Independent, 1987).
(Week 13) 17 November (Thanksgiving is 24 November)
The “Greening” of Mainstream Religions?
Readings (all)
  • Bron Taylor, The Greening of Religion Hypothesis (Part One): From Lynn White, Jr. and claims that religions can promote environmentally destructive attitudes and behaviors to assertions they are becoming environmentally friendly, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 10 (3) 2016; available at: https://florida.academia.edu/BronTaylor
  • Bron Taylor, Gretel Van Wieren & Bernard Zaleha, The Greening of Religion Hypothesis (Part Two): Assessing the Data from Lynn White, Jr. to Pope Francis, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 10 (3) 2016; available at: https://florida.academia.edu/BronTaylor
Readings (grads) Recommended:
  • ERN: "World religions" sections (especially Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Daoism, then following as many cross-references as possible). For recent religious resistance to these developments, see Paganism: a Jewish Perspective, and Wise Use Movement.
  • Albanese, Nature Religion ..., re. "Recapitulating Pieties," pp. 153-198 (ch. 5), and "Epilogue," pp. 199-201.
Documentaries
  • Journey of The Universe (2011)
  • Renewal: Amerca's Emerging Religious Environmental Movement (2007)
  • Renewal (project website)
No more reading reviews will be due, but do keep up with the readings, for they will need to be well in hand to do well on your final exam. This is not a bluff.
SCIENTIFIC AND OTHER FORMS OF CONTEMPORARY NATURE RELIGION:
Music Videos (all)
Readings (all)
Readings (grads)
  • Bron Taylor, Ecology and Nature Religions Encyclopedia of Religion, v. 4, 2nd ed., Lindsay Jones, ed., MacMillan Reference, New York: 2005, pp. 2661-2668
  • ERN: Natural History as Natural Religion; Restoration Ecology and Ritual; Process Philosophy (and Theology cross-reference); Sagan, Carl; Space Exploration.
Motion Pictures (possible film night)
Recommended
(Week 14) 1 December (last class)

The international influence of American, nature-related Religion

Film: Welcome Ceremony, United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg 2002). View: Part OnePart Two.
Readings (required)
Readings (recommended)
  • Robert Paelke’s Environmentalism and the Future of Progressive Politics (Yale U.P, 1989), 273-283
  • Martin Lewis, Green Delusions (Duke U.P., 1992), p. 150-90 & 242-51.
Documentary
If time, from list, below.
In-class portion of final exam administered in class 1 December. The essay portion will be made available no later than 1 December and will be due by midnight 11 December.
RESOURCES
Writing Well
Documentaries
Motion Pictures (theatrical)
Television
  • Game of Thrones
  • Many productions on Discovery, Animal Planet, PBS, Disney channels.
Websites
Additional resources, such as links to podcasts, music, slideshows, video, music, and websites, will be made available here during the course. Students are encouraged to send their own ideas for resources to the course instructors.