Thoreau As Spiritual Guide

Thoreau As Spiritual Guide
Author:
Publisher: Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
Total Pages: 92
Release:
Genre: Didactic literature, American
ISBN: 9781558965850

Walden, one of America's classic works on non-fiction, gets a fresh examination from a faith-based, and meditative perspective. Thoreau and the Trancendentalists tried to achieve a balance in their lives between work and leisure, nature and civilization, society and solitude, spiritual aspirations and moral behavior. This guide helps one "walk" through Walden again and find its soul while expanding your own.

Emerson As Spiritual Guide

Emerson As Spiritual Guide
Author:
Publisher: Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
Total Pages: 156
Release:
Genre: Religion in literature
ISBN: 9781558965782

"I believe Emerson is best understood as a spiritual guide and a spokesperson for an alternative American spiritual tradition. I have tried to make his message accessible and relevant to contemporary religious seekers." - Barry M. Andrews Includes resources for further study and reflection. "To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom." - from "Experience" by Ralph Waldo Emerson Though we may debate whether Ralph Waldo Emerson is primarily a poet, an essayist or a philosopher, for Barry Andrews, he is above all a spiritual teacher. His fiery genius ignited not only Thoreau but also Whitman, Fuller and many others. Though his life was riddled with loss, including the deaths of his first wife, two brothers and his first son, this remarkable man produced dozens of inspirational essays and poems and became the most widely quoted author in America today. Andrews' commentary shows a new generation of Americans how Emerson's spiritual journey joined an open heart with a critical mind. This will appeal to readers who consider themselves spiritual though not necessarily religious.

Letters to a Spiritual Seeker

Letters to a Spiritual Seeker
Author: Henry David Thoreau
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2004
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9780393059410

The writing of Henry David Thoreau is as full of life today as it was when he published Walden one hundred years ago. In seeking to understand nature, Thoreau sought to "lead a fresh, simple life with God." In 1848 a seeker named Harrison Blake, yearning for a spiritual life of his own, asked the then-fledgling writer for guidance. The fifty letters that ensued, collected here for the first time in their own volume by Thoreau specialist Bradley P. Dean, are by turns earnest, oracular, witty, playful, practical— and deeply insightful and inspiring, as one would expect from America's best prose stylist and great moral philosopher.

A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau

A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau
Author: William E. Cain
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2000
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0195138635

Thoreau - philosopher, essayist, hermit, tax protester and original thinker - led a singular life. This biography includes contributions of his relationship with 19th cent authority and concepts of the land.

Thoreau's Religion

Thoreau's Religion
Author: Alda Balthrop-Lewis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2021-01-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108835104

Boldly reconfigures Walden for contemporary ethics and politics by recovering Thoreau's theological vision of environmental justice.

Expect Great Things

Expect Great Things
Author: Kevin Dann
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2018-01-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0399184678

Now in paperback, this thrilling, meticulous biography by naturalist and historian Kevin Dann fills a gap in our understanding of Henry Thoreau, one modern history's most important spiritual visionaries by capturing the full arc of his life as a mystic, spiritual seeker, and explorer in transcendental realms. This acclaimed, epic biography of Henry David Thoreau sees Thoreau's world as the mystic himself saw it: filled with wonder and mystery; Native American myths and lore; wood sylphs, nature spirits, and fairies; battles between good and evil; and heroic struggles to live as a natural being in an increasingly synthetic world. Above all, Expect Great Things critically and authoritatively captures Thoreau's simultaneously wild and intellectually keen sense of the mystical, mythical, and supernatural. Other historians have skipped past or undervalued these aspects of Thoreau's life. In this groundbreaking work, historian and naturalist Kevin Dann restores Thoreau's esoteric visions and explorations to their rightful place as keystones of the man himself.

True Harvest

True Harvest
Author: Henry David Thoreau
Publisher: Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2005-09
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781558964907

A champion of the human spirit, Henry David Thoreau is a true American mystic. Walden, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2004, continues to be one of the most familiar and widely published books in America. Thoreau's writings have also coined countless colloquialisms that have become commonplace in our language, among them, "men live lives of quiet desperation" and "he hears a different drummer." Though he was not religious in any conventional sense, Thoreau entreated all those he touched to wake up, find their own way of living, and experience oneness with nature and society. In True Harvest, Barry Andrews, a noted Thoreau scholar and leading authority on the Transcendentalist movement, has collected the most provocative of these entreaties in a 365-day format of short readings. The passages are drawn from the whole of Thoreau's published works including his journals, letters, books, essays, and lectures and they reflect a wide range of topics - nature, society, politics, philosophy, ethics, education, religion, and social justice. This daybook will inspire readers to look for the spiritual throughout the year and in life's daily experiences. In addition, True Harvest is designed to help readers use Thoreau's sentiments as a daily spiritual practice'one that promotes a life of simplicity, conscious living, and quiet contemplation.

Walking With Thoreau

Walking With Thoreau
Author: William Howarth
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2001-05-16
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780807085554

A Literary Guide to the Mountains of New England Commentary by William Howarth Walking with Thoreau features Henry David Thoreau's writings on nine New England mountains. William Howarth's illuminating commentary, printed alongside Thoreau's text, allows the presentday hiker to retrace Thoreau's footsteps up some of New England's most popular mountain destinations.

Where I Lived, and What I Lived For

Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
Author: Henry Thoreau
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 78
Release: 2005-08-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0141964294

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are. Thoreau's account of his solitary and self-sufficient home in the New England woods remains an inspiration to the environmental movement - a call to his fellow men to abandon their striving, materialistic existences of 'quiet desperation' for a simple life within their means, finding spiritual truth through awareness of the sheer beauty of their surroundings.