Active and Contemplative Lives in a Changing Climate: The Emersonian Roots of Thoreau's Political Asceticism

This article addresses an existential quandary for scholars of religion in an age of climate change. Given climate problems, it might seem like we ought to spend our lives doing something more civically productive than reading and writing books. Yet, we continue in our professions. I address this by...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Balthrop-Lewis, Alda ca. 20./21. Jh. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Oxford University Press [2019]
In: Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Year: 2019, Volume: 87, Issue: 2, Pages: 311-332
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Emerson, Ralph Waldo 1803-1882 / Thoreau, Henry David 1817-1862 / Climatic change / Social engagement / Vita contemplativa
IxTheo Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
NCD Political ethics
NCG Environmental ethics; Creation ethics
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:This article addresses an existential quandary for scholars of religion in an age of climate change. Given climate problems, it might seem like we ought to spend our lives doing something more civically productive than reading and writing books. Yet, we continue in our professions. I address this by examining Henry David Thoreau’s experiment at Walden. Thoreau drew on a variety of religious traditions and texts in his thinking about religious asceticism and coincident questions about the value of active and contemplative life. In this article, I focus especially on a portion of the Harivaṃśa Thoreau translated and a very quiet controversy that arose between Emerson and Thoreau about the value of practical effect. Thoreau’s investment in ascetic life, both active and contemplative, shows one way in which the writing life itself sometimes aims to resist the drive for growth that powers contemporary climate change.
ISSN:1477-4585
Contains:Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfz010