Belden C. Lane

Backpacking with the Saints (eBook, PDF)

Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

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 Hammarskj?ld, and Thomas Merton, and as he walks, he engages their writings with the natural wonders he encounters--Bell Mountain Wilderness with S?ren 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. An enchanting narrative for Christians of all denominations, Backpacking with the Saints is an inspiring exploration of how solitude, simplicity, and mindfulness are illuminated and encouraged by the discipline of backcountry wandering, and of how the wilderness itself becomes a way of knowing-an ecology of the soul.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Oxford University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 3. November 2014
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780199927821
• Artikelnr.: 41661581

Autorenporträt

Belden C. Lane is Professor of Theological Studies, American Religion, and History of Spirituality at Saint Louis University. He is the author of The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality and Ravished by Beauty: The Surprising Legacy of Reformed Spirituality.

Inhaltsangabe

Table of Contents
Prologue
Part I: The Power of Wilderness and the Reading of Dangerous Texts
Chapter 1: The Allure of the Wild: Backpacking as Spiritual Practice
Chapter 2: The Risk-Taking Character of Wilderness Reading
Part II: The Pattern of Wilderness Spirituality
First Leg: Departure (Leaving the Trailhead)
Chapter 3: Venturing Out: The Irish Wilderness and Columba of Iona
Chapter 4: Disillusionment: Laramie Peak and Thérèse of Lisieux
Chapter 5: Desire: Rockpile Mountain Wilderness and Thomas Traherne
Second Leg: Discipline (The Practice of the Wild)
Chapter 6: Solitude: Bell Mountain Wilderness and Søren Kierkegaard
Chapter 7: Traveling Light: Gunstock Hollow and Dag Hammarskjöld
Chapter 8: Mindfulness: Moonshine Hollow and Thich Nhat Hanh
Third Leg: Descent (When the Trail Gets Rough)
Chapter 9: Fear: The Maze in Canyonlands and John of the Cross
Chapter 10: Failure: Mount Whitney and Martin Luther
Chapter 11: Dying: Mudlick Mountain Trail and the Cloud Author
Fourth Leg: Delight (Returning Home with Gifts)
Chapter 12: Discernment: Taum Sauk Mountain and Jelaluddin Rumi
Chapter 13: Community: Lower Rock Creek and Teilhard de Chardin
Chapter 14: Justice: The Meramec River at Times Beach and Mohandas Gandhi
Chapter 15: Holy Folly: Aravaipa Canyon and Thomas Merton
Epilogue
Appendix: The Meanings of Wilderness
Notes
Index