Description
Ancient wilderness mythologies have been criticised for their role in forming anthropocentric outlooks on the natural world, and idealising human separateness from the rest of the living world. Laura Feldt here challenges these ideas and presents a new approach to the question of the formative role of ancient wilderness mythologies. Analysing seminal ancient myths from Mesopotamia and ancient Jewish and Christian texts, she argues that these narratives do not idealise the destruction of and dominion over wildlands. Instead, they kindle emotions like awe and wonder at the wild powers of nature. They also provide a critical perspective on human societies and power and help form identities and experiences that resonate with the more-than-human world. Feldt also demonstrates how ancient wilderness mythologies played a decisive role in shaping the history of religions. As a sphere of intense emotion and total devotion, wilderness generates tendencies towards the individualisation and interiorisation of religion.
Table of Contents
1. Wilderness and narrative; 2. Approaching ancient wildernesses – concepts and strategy of analysis; 3. The mountain forest wilderness and old-Babylonian heroes; 4. Raging against the dying of the light – wildernesses and wilding in the standard-Babylonian Gilgameš epic; 5. wilderness memories: desert mythology and the formation of the People of Israel; 6. Wild men: the fantastic, fertility, and radical religion in the books of kings; 7. The wilderness in Isaiah: hybrid images, rewilding and green utopia in Isa 34-35; 8. Wilderness mythology in Jesus devotion and early Christianity; 9. If you wish to change your life: the desert and identity transformation in inquiry about the monks of Egypt; 10. Training transformability: islands and forests in late antique Gaul; 11. Wilderness and religion; bibliography.
