• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Publications

Thomas S. Bremer

Writer - Historian - Teacher

  • Causeries
  • Sacred Wonderland
  • Contact

Spirituality in national parks: a review of Kerry Mitchell

January 10, 2017 by Thomas S. Bremer 1 Comment

Kerry Mitchell, Spirituality and the State: Managing Nature and Experience in America’s National Parks (New York University Press, 2016).

Redwood trees
Redwood trees in Muir Woods National Monument (Photo by “Rudydale,” 2016; courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Kerry Mitchell examines state power through a lens of “spirituality” in America’s national parks. His book is piled high with intellectually intriguing questions about spirituality, nature, and the state, which, he tells us, evinces a broader concern with “religion under conditions of secularity” (p.3). Americans love their national parks for much more than their secular recreational value. The National Park Service, Dr. Mitchell reveals, plays a key role in facilitating transcendent experiences of the natural world for park visitors.

National parks and the love of country

Spirituality and the State by Kerry Mitchell

This book’s greatest value, though, may be its insights about more fundamental issues, not just regarding American national parks, but more generally about the human relationship to environments that people occupy and impact. “Through spirituality,” Mitchell concludes, “visitors invest in the environment and themselves at the same time.” This also has a nationalistic dimension. Affection for national parks, Mitchell demonstrates, relies on a love of nature which is also a love of oneself and of one’s nation. In this regard, national parks stand as patriotic temples of democracy where a love of natural, divinely endowed landscapes reinforces a love of country.

The stories people tell

Kerry Mitchell takes readers into some pretty heady intellectual ground. But I most appreciated how he builds his analysis on stories of people enjoying national parks. Page 1 begins with an invitation to a campfire. From these sorts of informal encounters to more structured social science research efforts, Mitchell develops a strong sociological basis for his argument. The opinions and stories of people he talked to give the book not only credibility, but they also offer insights into actual experiences of spirituality that contribute to the special status of American national parks.

This academic book raises important questions about spirituality in contemporary American culture, especially regarding the role of the state in urging a transcendent view of the natural world. It offers insights into the attraction of national parks for visitors who join Mitchell’s campfire host in recognizing the wilds of nature as “my church.” ♨

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: books, National Park Service, National Parks, nature, power, spirituality, state

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kieron says

    January 14, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    Thanks for the well written review!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Thank you for visiting

I write about religion and tourism, especially in regard to national parks. I am currently working on a history of religion in Yellowstone National Park. Read More…

Search this site

Posted topics

Acadia America American west AmWriting art birds colonialism creativity Elvis Presley geology geysers Graceland history hot springs Lincoln Manifest Destiny meditation memoir Memphis Montana Moon National Parks National Park Service Native Americans nature Ohio Oregon pilgrimage race religion religious tourism rivers sacred places sacred space San Antonio San Antonio Missions spirituality Springfield student learning teaching tourism Travel trees Yellowstone Yosemite

Visit the Causeries page for recent posts, and sign up here to get new posts and updates:





  • Email
  • RSS
  • Twitter
All content on this site created by Thomas S. Bremer unless otherwise noted.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

View the privacy policy for this site by clicking here.

Learn - Grow - Share

♨

Copyright © 2021 · Twenty Seven Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in