Loving and Studying Nature: Celebrating the Earth through History, Culture and Education

Description

This volume investigates crucial ways in which nature has been apprehended, understood and valued in different cultures and over time. It is grounded in current global concerns about growing threats to the natural environment. Through a critical appraisal of specific examples, it ranges widely over historical and contemporary attitudes and behaviours. It presents a wide ranging analysis of selected ideas and attitudes in the evolution mainly of western civilisation, from the time of the cave artists to the present day.  It argues for preservation and conservation of the natural resources and beauty of the earth in the face of religious supernatural arguments and the rise of consumer capitalism and consumerism.  Series Editors’ Foreword Acknowledgement References Preface Acknowledgements Contents Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview: Visions of Nature 1.1 Shifting Attitudes, Changing Values 1.2 Historical Episodes in Love and Study of Nature Chapter 2: A Ravaged Land: The Mining City of Broken Hill 2.1 From Tented Encampment to Heritage City 2.2 Dust 2.3 Inland Living 2.4 Discovery, Settlement and Destruction of Western Lands: From Charles Sturt, Explorer, to the Spread of Pastoralism 2.5 The Western Lands Commission of 1900–1901 2.6 Aftermath. A Partial Diagnosis and Continued Failings Chapter 3: Recovery 3.1 A Mining Turnaround 3.2 The Leadership of A.J. Keast and H.S. Robinson 3.3 Extending the Vision 3.4 Re-vegetation Starts 3.5 Nature’s Friends: Albert and Margaret Morris 3.6 The Barrier Field Naturalists Club 3.7 Impact and Legacy Chapter 4: Bison and Beyond – Artists Encounter Animals 4.1 Ancient Southern European Cave Art 4.1.1 Reading Ancient Cave Art 4.1.2 Discovery – Recovery 4.1.3 Interpretations 4.2 The Bison in History and Later Art 4.2.1 The Fate of the European Bison 4.2.2 The Fate of the American Bison 4.2.3 Representing the American Bison in Art 4.3 Some Other Animals in Art 4.4 Modern Paradoxes Chapter 5: To Be Religious 5.1 Diversity of Religious Beliefs and Practices 5.2 Religious Sensibility 5.3 God, Man, Nature 5.4 Persistence of the Religious Impulse Chapter 6: Christianity Spreads from Ancient Roots 6.1 Old Testament and Other Ancient Religions 6.2 Carryover into Christianity 6.3 Early Spread of Christianity 6.4 The Catholic Church 6.5 Man – God’s Regent on Earth 6.6 An Intellectual Boost to Faith: The Theological Impulse 6.7 Augustine, Bishop of Hippo 6.8 The City of God 6.9 Being a Christian; the Biblical Hierarchy of Being 6.10 Educating Christians Chapter 7: Souls: Pagan, Christian, Animal 7.1 What Is a Soul? 7.2 Capabilities of Christian Souls 7.3 Soul in Greek Thought 7.4 Animal Elements. Do Animals Have Souls? Chapter 8: Imagining Nature in Myths and Creation Stories 8.1 The Continuing Grip of Creation Stories 8.2 Functions of Creation Stories 8.3 Trading Creation Stories 8.4 A Tremendous Story of Paradise on Earth: The Garden of Eden 8.5 Uses of the Eden Story Chapter 9: Hierarchical Nature. Did God Love His Creatures Equally? 9.1 Preservation of Life by Noah’s Ark 9.2 Why Sacrifice Living Creatures? 9.3 The Recurring Dominion Theme 9.4 The Notion of Natural Hierarchies Chapter 10: Walafrid Strabo. Benedictine Monk, Virgilian Poet, Mediaeval Gardener 10.1 The Benedictine Monastery at Reichenau 10.2 St Benedict and the Early Benedictines 10.3 The Benedictine Rule and Its Practice 10.4 Culture and Learning in the Monasteries 10.5 Contact with the World 10.6 Walafrid Strabo: Monk, Poet, Gardener 10.7 Hortulus, the First European Garden Book Chapter 11: St Francis the Poverello – Little Poor Man of Assisi – And His Followers 11.1 A Renewal of Asceticism 11.2 Fioretti: The Little Flowers of St Francis 11.3 Preaching to Animals in the Open Air 11.4 Were All Animals Truly Equal “Partners in Creation”? 11.5 In Praise of Nature: The Canticle 11.6 Nature’s Master? 11.7 Unconditional Love? 11.8 A Veil of Piety Drawn Over Incipient Pantheism 11.9 Patron Saint of Animals, the Environment and Ecology Chapter 12: The Protestant Reformation, Consumer Capitalism and the Religious Society of Friends 12.1 The Collapse of the Mediaeval Religious Synthesis 12.2 The Breakaways: Variations on Common Religious Themes 12.3 Did the Calvinistic Impulse Energise Consumer Capitalism? 12.4 Continuing Human Dominance 12.5 Radical Religion: The Religious Society of Friends 12.6 Quaker Beliefs and Values 12.7 Quakers and Nature Chapter 13: The Reverend Gilbert White and the Religion of Nature 13.1 Rethinking Nature and Religion 13.2 Religious, Secular and Early Scientific Views of Man’s Place in Nature 13.3 Breaking with Rome: The Fortunes of the Anglican Church 13.4 Natural Religion 13.5 Natural History 13.6 The Nature of Nature 13.7 The Reverend Gilbert White of Selborne Chapter 14: Pathways to an Earthly Paradise – The Mogul Emperors 14.1 Connecting with Earth Through Gardening 14.2 Diverse Images of Paradise 14.3 Eden and Antecedents 14.4 Islamic Paradise 14.5 Other Paradises 14.6 Nature and Paradise in the Mogul Empire 14.6.1 Timur, Heir of the Mongol Tribal Warriors and Mogul Forebear 14.6.2 Babur and Humayun, the First Moguls 14.6.3 Akbar, the Greatest Mogul 14.6.4 Jahangir, Master Garden Maker 14.6.5 Shah Jahan – Creator of the Taj Mahal 14.6.6 Aurangzeb, the End of Empire and the Aftermath: The Last “Mogul” Garden 14.7 Paradise Regained? Chapter 15: Voyagers, Explorers, Travellers and Collectors 15.1 Mapping the Globe 15.2 Sailing the Oceans, Colonising the Land 15.3 Gateways to the Pacific 15.4 Landfalls: From Terra Australis to Australia via New Holland 15.5 Cook and Banks 15.6 Naturalists, Collectors and Botanical Artists Chapter 16: Ways of Valuing and Appreciating Nature 16.1 The English Vicarage Garden 16.1.1 The Ideal English Garden 16.1.2 The Vicarage and Its Garden 16.2 Neot Kedumim 16.3 Children Study Nature 16.3.1 Antecedents 16.3.2 Scope of the New Education 16.3.3 Nature Study in the Primary School 16.3.4 Learning to Value Nature 16.4 “They Stole Our Land and (Thereby) Destroyed Our Culture” 16.4.1 Australian Aboriginals and European Settlers 16.4.2 The Dreaming 16.4.3 Caring for the Land and Its Creatures Chapter 17: Reaching an Understanding and Love of Nature 17.1 A Continuing Quest 17.2 The Gathering Tide of Secularism and Religious Surges; Dominion Reinforced 17.3 Experiencing, Knowing and Using the Natural World 17.4 A Return to Nature – A Physical Quest and a Moral Ideal 17.5 Darwinism, the Agnostic Challenge and Ecology 17.6 Scientific Inquiry Flourishes while Religious Faith Vacillates 17.7 The West and its Values Bibliography Index