Walking in the Land of Many Gods: Remembering Sacred Reason in Contemporary Environmental Literature

A lucid, large-spirited study of environmental literature that contributes directly to a central issue in contemporary ecocriticism: how to understand humanity’s fundamental connectedness to the world. Wohlpart embraces this conundrum with eloquence, optimism, and an enthusiastic sense of mystery.

–Scott Slovic “editor of ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment“

An innovative ecocritical study, Walking in the Land of Many Gods makes a real contribution to our understanding of contemporary environmental literature and of our current environmental situation. Wohlpart articulates an alternative view of the human place in the world, suggesting ways we can live richer and more ecologically sustainable lives.

–Philip Cafaro “author of Thoreau’s Living Ethics: “Walden” and the Pursuit of Virtue“

With compassion and love–emee’ih eh ah’moo’oh nhiyah in the Acoma Pueblo language–we are within sacred reason when we sincerely and fully participate in the ecology of life, that is, the organic forces of nature, Jim Wohlpart observes in Walking in the Land of Many Gods. And he confirms and affirms this teaching by the questioning yet insightful articulation offered by Linda Hogan, Terry Tempest Williams, and Janisse Ray to help us realize it is possible to attain beneficial communion with sacred Mother Earth. And with some help from Martin Heidegger also. Thank you–Dawaa-eh–for the knowledge!

–Simon J. Ortiz “Acoma Pueblo author of Woven Stone, Out There Somewhere, and From Sand Creek“

A. JAMES WOHLPART is a professor of English and dean of Undergraduate Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University. He is coeditor, with Peter Blaze Corcoran, of A Voice for Earth: American Writers Respond to the Earth Charter (Georgia), and coeditor, with Susan Cerulean and Janisse Ray, of Unspoiled: Writers Speak for Florida’s Coast.