ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an overview of the numerous spiritualities that make up nature religion; it also points to some of the underlying historical influences of esotericism, romanticism and environmentalism that have currency in everyday contemporary practice. It presents an intimate portrayal of some ideas and attitudes to nature; it is inevitably selective—a vignette through some of the multiplicity of approaches. The book raws on the philosophical and theological notion of participation, the term coined by philosopher Lucien Levy-Bruhl and developed by anthropologist Stanley Tambiah to examine consciousness. It continues the theme of participation through an examination of the role of fairy stories and nature spirits in creating a sense of being indigenous—of being related to place. David Abram says that language for oral peoples is not a human invention but a ‘gift of the land itself’.
