Adopting a critical but sympathetic perspective, this course assesses the spiritual dimensions of the relationship between the Earth and its human inhabitants in what is now the United States. On the one hand, theological assumptions have shaped peoples' treatment of the natural world; on the other hand, changes in the environment have profoundly influenced human social and cultural patterns. Over the course of the semester, we will be exploring this dialectic by unpacking stereotypes about Native-American resource management, debating the Biblical origins of the environmental crisis, examining romantic constructions of the American wilderness, considering apocalyptic visions of ecological degradation, studying the evolution of conservation history, and looking at the recent development of movements devoted to deep ecology, ecofeminism, ecojustice, and monkey-wrenching. Our readings will be drawn from environmental historians, ecological ethicists, and literary naturalists including H. D. Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Gary Snyder, Wendell Berry, Sallie McFague, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Pope John Paul II. Requirements: full attendance and participation, brief weekly response papers, three 5- to 7-page essays. Open to all classes without prerequisite. Enrollment limited to 30.

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