| Description |
xviii, 266 pages ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
The allure of the wild: backpacking as spiritual practice -- The risk-taking character of wilderness reading -- Venturing out: the Irish wilderniss and Columbia of Iona -- Disillusionment: Laramie Peak and Tȟ̈rse of Lisieux -- Desire: Rockpile Mountsin wilderness and Thomas Traherne -- Solitude: Bell Mountain wilderness and Søren Kierkegaard -- Traveling light: Gunstock Hollow and Dag Hammarskjold -- Mindfulness: Moonshine Hollow and Thich Nhat Hanh -- Fear: the maze in Canyonlands and John of the Cross -- Failure: Mt. Whitney and Martin Luter -- Dying: Mudlick Mountain Trail and The Cloud of Unknowing -- Discernment: Taum Sauk Mountain and Jelaluddin Rumi -- Community: Lower Rock Creed and Teilhard de Chardin -- Justice: the Mermec River at Times Beach and Mohandas Gandhi -- Holy folly: Aravaipa Canyon and Thomas Merton. |
| Summary |
"Carrying only basic camping equipment and a collection of the world's great spiritual writings, Belden C. Lane embarks on solitary spiritual treks through the Ozarks and across the American Southwest. For companions, he has only such teachers as Rumi, John of the Cross, Hildegard of Bingen, Dag Hammarskjöld, and Thomas Merton, and as he walks, he engages their writings with the natural wonders he encounters--Bell Mountain Wilderness with Søren Kierkegaard, Moonshine Hollow with Thich Nhat Hanh--demonstrating how being alone in the wild opens a rare view onto one's interior landscape, and how the saints' writings reveal the divine in nature. The discipline of backpacking, Lane shows, is a metaphor for a spiritual journey. Just as the wilderness offered revelations to the early Desert Christians, backpacking hones crucial spiritual skills: paying attention, traveling light, practicing silence, and exercising wonder. Lane engages the practice not only with a wide range of spiritual writings--Celtic, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, and Sufi Muslim--but with the fascination of other lovers of the backcountry, from John Muir and Ed Abbey to Bill Plotkin and Cheryl Strayed. In this intimate and down-to-earth narrative, backpacking is shown to be a spiritual practice that allows the discovery of God amidst the beauty and unexpected terrors of nature. Adoration, Lane suggests, is the most appropriate human response to what we cannot explain, but have nonetheless learned to love." - Dust jacket. |
| Subject |
Nature -- Religious aspects.
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Wilderness (Theology)
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Backpacking -- Miscellanea.
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Books and reading -- Religious aspects.
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Spiritual life.
|
| ISBN |
9780199927814 hardcover |
|
0199927812 hardcover |
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