The Saving Grace of America's Green Jeremiad

(Hardback)

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American environmental literature characteristically embodies an appreciative, lyrical evocation of the natural world. But conservation-minded authors have often been moved to dramatize diverse, anthropogenic perils to environmental preservation. John Gatta freshly reveals how this darker strain of environmental writing enlarges upon a jeremiad tradition of prophecy inherited from Puritan New England. In the spirit of ancient Hebrew prophecy, jeremiads reach beyond effusions of doom and gloom toward prospects of renewal through a conversion of heart. Accordingly, writing steeped in what Gatta terms this Green Jeremiad tradition not only warns of material perils but incorporates a spiritual, existential layer of meaning.

Reviews

I read John Gattas inspirational and informative study with pleasure and excitement. He is onto something of great value here, as he looks for what he calls transformative grace in certain key texts. He identifies a significant, if not central, American tradition, the Green Jeremiad, and he tracks it lovingly, rightly seeing a testimony of faith in each of these works: faith in the readers who come to these pages with expectation, with moral attentiveness, alert to the possibilities of change. This is a deeply serious and important book.

Author Bio

John Gatta is professor english emeritus at the University of Connecticut and at the University of the South, Sewanee.