Pre-Reading Warm-Up

As religions vary, so do the beliefs they endorse about the relationship between nature and the divine. According to traditional Christian doctrine, for example, God is separate from and superior to nature, while in many Native American spiritual belief systems, nature is inseparable from the divine. Even atheists, or those who reject spirituality, may have an implicit view of the grace, perfection, or divinity represented by nature. What are your thoughts about the relationship between nature and the divine?

Teaching suggestion: Students will likely have wide-ranging experiences with faith communities—some will be very committed to their faith practices; others will not identify with any spiritual belief system at all. Encourage even those students who identify as atheist or agnostic to consider IF nature is inspiring in any way (emotionally, psychologically, or aesthetically) and WHY.

Personal Response

Emerson advises readers not to look for ultimate truth in science, religion, or human society, but in nature alone. He maintains that the eternal laws of right and wrong are inherent in nature and writes, in Chapter 5 (“Discipline”), “The moral law lies at the centre of nature and radiates to the circumference.” Some people might argue that survival, not virtue, is the guiding principle of nature, and the laws of society provide people with a moral compass that does not exist in the wild.