Driver, B. L., Dustin, Dan, Baltic, Tony, Eisner, Gary, & Peterson, George. (1997). Nature and the human spirit: Toward an expanded land management ethic

Abstract

Driver, B. L., Dustin, Dan, Baltic, Tony, Elsner, Gary, & Peterson, George. (1997). Nature and the human spirit: Toward an expanded land ethic. State College, PA: Venture Publishing, Inc. (ISBN: 0-910251-82-7) $39.95 cloth, 467 pp. It has been said that no one should discuss religion or politics in polite company. The problem with adhering to this aphorism is that it leaves one unable to discuss some of the most interesting and valuable topics around. However, over the last decade or so society's reticence to discuss these topics has waned. Specifically, the topics of religion and spirituality seem to have re-emerged as areas of interest not only in popular literature but for scholars in many fields. With everyone from psychologists to physicists exploring the import of these areas into their disciplines, it is probably high-time that those involved in land and resource-based recreation do the same. Nature and the human spirit: Toward an expanded land ethic is an edited collection of 38 chapters and two introductory essays by more than two dozen contributors that addresses religion, spirituality, and related from a variety of perspectives, but all within the context of natural resource management. The book is divided into six sections, the first of which is a two chapter introduction and overview. General readability is very good, although the style of presentation varies greatly. Some chapters read like poetry, while others are presented in a more traditional academic fashion. The combination of these perspectives and styles lays a good foundation for addressing the obvious complexity and diversity of the subject matter. The editors utilize the two introductory essays, which comprise the first section, to establish their vision for the book. Surprisingly, both of these essays combined total only 13 pages, and offer only a sketch outline of the next five sections along with a brief discussion of the rationale behind the book's creation. Perhaps the best chapter for introducing the book fell entirely outside of this section. Holmes Rolston's Nature, spirit, and landscape management is prerequisite to reading the rest of the book. In this chapter, the well-known environmental philosopher weaves together the concepts of nature, science, and spirit in a way that allows one to immediately apprehend the relevancy of this book's subject matter. The bulk of the book is the remaining chapters and sections, which deal with setting the stage for the discussion, providing diverse perspectives, presenting issues related to public land management, and exploring research possibilities. The authors and editors are to be congratulated for their attempts to bring in many differing points-of-view and for their respectful treatment of the subject matter. The various ethnic and international perspectives go a long way toward providing specific insights and establishing the universality of the book's subject matter. Most of the chapters were very well-written, providing new perspectives or needed overviews of established ones. Ed Grumbine's Beyond conservation and preservation in American environmental is a high-quality, concise overview of the evolution of the varieties of domestic environmentalism. Roger Mannell's examination of scientific approaches to studying religion, spirituality, and other hard-to-define values is well done and insightful. Another excellent chapter was Jennifer Friesen's much-needed discussion of the legal aspects of managing for spiritual values in public settings. Other chapters were basically sound, but lacking in their address of essential points one might have anticipated. The comparative perspectives of the world's major religions by Stephanie Kaza in Chapter Three was an interesting and essential component-but altogether too brief. It's hard to condense centuries of Buddhism or Christianity into a page or two; harder still to tease out a few concepts that could provide positive influences to personal or professional value-ordering. …