Wilderness Lost: The Religious Origins of the American MindThis book establishes that there is a consistent tradition of wilderness imagery in American literature, A psychological reading of theology is applied to the writings of such authors as Thomas Hooker, Jonathan Edwards, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and Dickinson. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 66
Page
... tradition of wilderness imagery in American liter- ature embodies implicit assumptions about human consciousness and the means of reconciling it with the universal consciousness called God . Once having established this thesis , he ...
... tradition of wilderness imagery in American liter- ature embodies implicit assumptions about human consciousness and the means of reconciling it with the universal consciousness called God . Once having established this thesis , he ...
Page 13
... tradition of Calvinist mysticism in which they were nurtured and out of which they wrote . This book explores a new approach to the study of early Amer- ican literature and culture in order to clear a path by which modern students can ...
... tradition of Calvinist mysticism in which they were nurtured and out of which they wrote . This book explores a new approach to the study of early Amer- ican literature and culture in order to clear a path by which modern students can ...
Page 14
... tradition of Puritanism is thus an important step toward understanding ourselves and our occa- sional desire to break out of structure , to transcend our often stale and boring lives , and to plunge into a wilderness in the hope of ...
... tradition of Puritanism is thus an important step toward understanding ourselves and our occa- sional desire to break out of structure , to transcend our often stale and boring lives , and to plunge into a wilderness in the hope of ...
Page 24
... tradition and particularly in the American strain of that tradition . The most ancient and revered of those " mystic chords of memory that bind the nation together , " to use Lincoln's phrase , have to do with wilderness . Even today ...
... tradition and particularly in the American strain of that tradition . The most ancient and revered of those " mystic chords of memory that bind the nation together , " to use Lincoln's phrase , have to do with wilderness . Even today ...
Page 25
... tradition of wilderness imagery , and it was in their understanding of their role in the drama of salvation , in the experience of conversion , that the symbols burned in their souls and minds . These first settlers believed that it was ...
... tradition of wilderness imagery , and it was in their understanding of their role in the drama of salvation , in the experience of conversion , that the symbols burned in their souls and minds . These first settlers believed that it was ...
Contents
9 | |
11 | |
23 | |
New England Canaan and the Wilderness | 46 |
The Great Awakening of Fear | 83 |
Revival and Revolution | 111 |
The Transcendental Growth | 149 |
Hawthorne Very and Dickinson The Wilderness of the Mind | 180 |
Herman Melville The Watery Wilderness | 213 |
Wilderness Lost Oliver Wendell Holmes and the OneHoss Shay | 235 |
9 Conclusion | 249 |
Notes | 254 |
Bibliography | 274 |
Index | 287 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
American Antinomian antitype Arminian Awakening behavior believed Boston called Calvinism Calvinist Cambridge Canaan century children of Israel Christ Christian church consciousness conversion Cotton Cotton Mather covenant culture darkness depravity desert divine doctrine doubt Egypt Emily Dickinson England eternal evangelical experience faith fear God's grace Hawthorne heart heaven hell Herman Melville Holmes's holy Hooker human Ibid identity imagined John Jonathan Edwards letters liberty literal wilderness Lord madness Mary Moody Emerson Mather Melville Melville's mind MME-RWE Moby-Dick mystic Nathaniel Hawthorne nature ness never Oliver Wendell Holmes perception Perry Miller poem preached promised land Puritan Ralph Waldo Emerson rational regeneration religion religious Revolution saints salvation scripture self-love sense sermon shay Shepard sinners sojourn soul spiritual Stoddard subconscious symbol terror Testament theology Thomas Thomas Hooker Thoreau thought tion Transcendental trials true truth Typology University Press vision wilderness imagery wilderness tradition Williams worldly wrath wrote York Zion
Popular passages
Page 111 - And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face, of the serpent.
Page 46 - He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Page 216 - And we Americans are the peculiar, chosen people - the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world.
Page 36 - For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Page 18 - To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.
Page 235 - HAVE you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay, That was built in such a logical way It ran a hundred years to a day, And then, of a sudden, it— ah, but stay...
Page 33 - And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
Page 28 - Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope : and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Page 227 - He saw God's foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad.