Sacred Nature
Earth-based Spirituality as Popular Religion in the Pacific Northwest
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v5i2.164Keywords:
sacred, nature, Nones, Northwest, lived religionAbstract
There is a range of earth-based spirituality in the Paci?c Northwest of the United States that collectively amounts to Nature Religion—a popular religiosity that makes nature sacred. The mythic, experiential, ritualistic, and communal dimensions of this folk religion—expressed in regional literature, rituals of leisure, and the environmental movement—has come to have wide currency in public life. An understanding of this nature religion has broad implications for the study of American politics and religious diversity.
References
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Ammerman, Nancy T. 2007. Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Lives (New York: Oxford University Press).
Ashworth, William. 1999. The Left Hand of Eden: Meditations on Nature and Human Nature (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press).
Braymen-Cleary, Lee. 2008. ‘Observe Envirosabbath’, The Oregonian, 14 April.
Cody, Robin. 2005. ‘Oregon lit: 100—variations on man-in-nature theme’, The Oregonian, 20 February.
Cronon, William. 1995. ‘The Trouble with Wilderness: Or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature’, in Cronon 1996: 69-90.
Cronon, William (ed.). 1996. Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (New York: W.W. Norton & Co.).
Dietrich, William. 1992. The Final Forest: The Battle for the Last Great Trees of the Paci_c Northwest (New York: Penguin Books).
Duncan, David J. 1983. The River Why (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books).
———. 2001. My Story as Told by Water: Confessions, Druidic Rants, Re_ections, Birdwatchings, Fish-stalkings, Visions, Songs and Prayers Refracting Light, from Living Rivers, in the Age of the Industrial Dark (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books).
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Ebaugh, Helen R., and Janet S. Chafetz. 2002. Religion across Borders: Transnational Immigrant Networks (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press).
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Gaustad, Edwin S. 1962. Historical Atlas of Religion in America (New York: Harper & Row).
Gould, Rebecca K. 1999. ‘Modern Homesteading in America: Negotiating Religion, Nature, and Modernity’, Worldviews: Environment Culture Religion 3.3: 183-213. doi:10.1163/156853599X00162.
Hall, David D. (ed.). 1997. Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Hoagland, Edward. 2003. Hoagland on Nature: Essays (Guilford, CN: The Lyons Press).
Kerr, Andy. 2009. ‘Starting the Fight and Finishing the Job’, in T. Spies and S. Duncan (eds.), Old Growth in a New World (Washington, DC: Island Press): 129-38.
Kesey, Ken. 1964. Sometimes a Great Notion (New York: Bantam Books).
Killen, Patricia O., 2004. ‘Introduction’, in Killen and Silk 2004: 9-20.
Killen, Patricia O., and Mark A. Shibley. 2004. ‘Surveying the Religious Landscape’, in Killen and Silk 2004: 25-49.
Killen, Patricia O., and M. Silk (eds.). 2004. Religion and Public Life in the Paci_c Northwest: The None Zone (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press).
Kosmin, Barry, Egon Mayer, and Ariela Keysar. 2001. American Religious Identity Survey (The Graduate Center: City University of New York). Online: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_studies.htm#aris_1.
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Morgan, Karen. 2001. ‘Romancing the Earth: A Tree-Sitter’s Protest’, The Oregonian, 2 February.
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Oates, David. 2003. Paradise Wild: Reimagining American Nature (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press).
O’Connell, Nicholas. 2003. On Sacred Ground: The Spirit of Place in Paci_c Northwest Literature (Seattle: University of Washington Press).
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———. 1997. ‘Everyday Miracles: The Study of Lived Religion’, in D. Hall (ed.), Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press): 3-21.
Philippon, Daniel J. 2004. Conserving Words: How American Nature Writers Shaped the Environmental Movement (Athens: University of Georgia Press).
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Proctor, James D. 1995. ‘Whose Nature? The Contested Moral Terrain of Ancient Forests’, in Cronon 1996: 269-97.
Robin, Vicki, and Joe Dominguez. 1992. Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence (New York: Viking Penguin).
Shibley, Mark A. 2004. ‘Secular but Spiritual in the Paci_c Northwest’, in Killen and Silk 2004: 139-68.
———. 2008. ‘The Promise and Limits of Secular Spirituality in Cascadia’, in D. Todd (ed.), Cascadia: The Elusive Utopia: Exploring the Spirit of the Paci_c Northwest (Vancouver, BC: Ronsdale Press): 33-52.
Snyder, Gary. 1983. Axe Handles (Washington, DC: Shoemaker & Hoard).
Stark, Rodney, and William S. Bainbridge. 1985. The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Taylor, Bron. 1991. ‘The Religion and Politics of Earth First!’, The Ecologist 21: 258-66.
———. 2001. ‘Earth and Nature-based Spirituality (Part I): From Deep Ecology to Radical Environmentalism’, Religion 31.2: 175-94. doi:10.1006/reli.2000.0256.
———. 2010. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Thomas, Chant. 2000. ‘The Sacred Tree’, in S. Cross (ed.), Intricate Homeland: Collected Writings from the Klamath Siskiyou (Ashland, OR: Headwaters Press): 120-24.
U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. 2007. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: Pew Research Center. Online: http://religions.pewforum.org/reports.
Warner, R. Stephen, and Judith G. Wittner. 1998. Gatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigration (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).
Williams, Peter W. 1980. Popular Religion in America: Symbolic Change and the Modernization Process in Historical Perspective (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall).
Wuthnow, Robert. 2005. America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Zelinsky, Wilber. 1961. ‘An Approach to the Religious Geography of the United States: Patterns of Church Membership in 1952’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 51: 139-93. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1961.tb00372.x.
Ammerman, Nancy T. 2007. Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Lives (New York: Oxford University Press).
Ashworth, William. 1999. The Left Hand of Eden: Meditations on Nature and Human Nature (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press).
Braymen-Cleary, Lee. 2008. ‘Observe Envirosabbath’, The Oregonian, 14 April.
Cody, Robin. 2005. ‘Oregon lit: 100—variations on man-in-nature theme’, The Oregonian, 20 February.
Cronon, William. 1995. ‘The Trouble with Wilderness: Or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature’, in Cronon 1996: 69-90.
Cronon, William (ed.). 1996. Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (New York: W.W. Norton & Co.).
Dietrich, William. 1992. The Final Forest: The Battle for the Last Great Trees of the Paci_c Northwest (New York: Penguin Books).
Duncan, David J. 1983. The River Why (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books).
———. 2001. My Story as Told by Water: Confessions, Druidic Rants, Re_ections, Birdwatchings, Fish-stalkings, Visions, Songs and Prayers Refracting Light, from Living Rivers, in the Age of the Industrial Dark (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books).
Dunlap, Thomas R. 2004. Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest (Seattle: University of Washington Press).
Ebaugh, Helen R., and Janet S. Chafetz. 2002. Religion across Borders: Transnational Immigrant Networks (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press).
Eck, Diana L. 2001. A New Religious America: How a ‘Christian Country’ has Now Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco).
Gaustad, Edwin S. 1962. Historical Atlas of Religion in America (New York: Harper & Row).
Gould, Rebecca K. 1999. ‘Modern Homesteading in America: Negotiating Religion, Nature, and Modernity’, Worldviews: Environment Culture Religion 3.3: 183-213. doi:10.1163/156853599X00162.
Hall, David D. (ed.). 1997. Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Hoagland, Edward. 2003. Hoagland on Nature: Essays (Guilford, CN: The Lyons Press).
Kerr, Andy. 2009. ‘Starting the Fight and Finishing the Job’, in T. Spies and S. Duncan (eds.), Old Growth in a New World (Washington, DC: Island Press): 129-38.
Kesey, Ken. 1964. Sometimes a Great Notion (New York: Bantam Books).
Killen, Patricia O., 2004. ‘Introduction’, in Killen and Silk 2004: 9-20.
Killen, Patricia O., and Mark A. Shibley. 2004. ‘Surveying the Religious Landscape’, in Killen and Silk 2004: 25-49.
Killen, Patricia O., and M. Silk (eds.). 2004. Religion and Public Life in the Paci_c Northwest: The None Zone (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press).
Kosmin, Barry, Egon Mayer, and Ariela Keysar. 2001. American Religious Identity Survey (The Graduate Center: City University of New York). Online: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_studies.htm#aris_1.
Kosmin, Barry, and Ariela Keysar. 2008. American Religious Identity Survey (Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture: Trinity College). Online: http://livinginliminality._les.wordpress.com/2009/03/aris_report_2008.pdf.
Laird, Lance. 2004. ‘Religions of the Paci_c Rim in the Paci_c Northwest’, in Killen and Silk 2004: 139-68.
Longacre, Doris J. 1980. Living More with Less (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press).
Lopez, Barry. 1986. Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape (New York: Scribner).
Maclean, Norman. 1983. A River Runs Through It (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
McGuire, Meredith. 2008. Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life (New York: Oxford University Press).
Mitchell, Richard G. 2002. Dancing at Armageddon: Survivalism and Chaos in Modern Times (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Morgan, Karen. 2001. ‘Romancing the Earth: A Tree-Sitter’s Protest’, The Oregonian, 2 February.
Neitz, Mary Jo. 2000. ‘The Mainline Sidelined: The Sociology of Religion Unbound’, Journal for the Scienti_c Study of Religion 39: 509-14. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2000.tb00012.x.
Oates, David. 2003. Paradise Wild: Reimagining American Nature (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press).
O’Connell, Nicholas. 2003. On Sacred Ground: The Spirit of Place in Paci_c Northwest Literature (Seattle: University of Washington Press).
Orsi, Robert A. 1985. The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880–1950 (New Haven: Yale University Press).
———. 1997. ‘Everyday Miracles: The Study of Lived Religion’, in D. Hall (ed.), Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press): 3-21.
Philippon, Daniel J. 2004. Conserving Words: How American Nature Writers Shaped the Environmental Movement (Athens: University of Georgia Press).
Porter, Samuel C. 1999. ‘The Paci_c Northwest Forest Debate: Bringing Religion Back In?’, Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion 3.1: 3-32. doi:10.1163/156853599X00027.
Proctor, James D. 1995. ‘Whose Nature? The Contested Moral Terrain of Ancient Forests’, in Cronon 1996: 269-97.
Robin, Vicki, and Joe Dominguez. 1992. Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence (New York: Viking Penguin).
Shibley, Mark A. 2004. ‘Secular but Spiritual in the Paci_c Northwest’, in Killen and Silk 2004: 139-68.
———. 2008. ‘The Promise and Limits of Secular Spirituality in Cascadia’, in D. Todd (ed.), Cascadia: The Elusive Utopia: Exploring the Spirit of the Paci_c Northwest (Vancouver, BC: Ronsdale Press): 33-52.
Snyder, Gary. 1983. Axe Handles (Washington, DC: Shoemaker & Hoard).
Stark, Rodney, and William S. Bainbridge. 1985. The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Taylor, Bron. 1991. ‘The Religion and Politics of Earth First!’, The Ecologist 21: 258-66.
———. 2001. ‘Earth and Nature-based Spirituality (Part I): From Deep Ecology to Radical Environmentalism’, Religion 31.2: 175-94. doi:10.1006/reli.2000.0256.
———. 2010. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Thomas, Chant. 2000. ‘The Sacred Tree’, in S. Cross (ed.), Intricate Homeland: Collected Writings from the Klamath Siskiyou (Ashland, OR: Headwaters Press): 120-24.
U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. 2007. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: Pew Research Center. Online: http://religions.pewforum.org/reports.
Warner, R. Stephen, and Judith G. Wittner. 1998. Gatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigration (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).
Williams, Peter W. 1980. Popular Religion in America: Symbolic Change and the Modernization Process in Historical Perspective (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall).
Wuthnow, Robert. 2005. America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Zelinsky, Wilber. 1961. ‘An Approach to the Religious Geography of the United States: Patterns of Church Membership in 1952’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 51: 139-93. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1961.tb00372.x.
Published
2011-08-29
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Shibley, M. A. (2011). Sacred Nature: Earth-based Spirituality as Popular Religion in the Pacific Northwest. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 5(2), 164-185. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v5i2.164
