Lydia Willsky-Ciollo is associate professor of religious studies and director of American studies at Fairfield University. She is author of American Unitarianism and the Protestant Dilemma: The Conundrum of Biblical Authority and co-author with Eugene V. Gallagher of New Religions: Emerging Faiths and Religious Cultures in the Modern World.

• AcknowledgmentsList of IllustrationsIntroduction: A Theology of Muskrats and Skunk Cabbage, and of MenPart I: Roots1. "I am a New-Englander": The World that Made Henry David Thoreau2. "I pray for such inward experience": The Work of the Mind or, the Education of Henry David ThoreauPart II: Fruits3. "Does Wisdom Work in a tread-mill?": Thoreau's Surveying Work and Theological Vocation4. "May we not see God?": Henry David Thoreau's Doctrine of Spiritual Senses5. "Naturalized, but on the Soil of the Earth": Thoreau, American Indians, and Salvation6. "Talk of heaven! Ye disgrace earth": On Thoreau's Theology of Time, Death, and the AfterlifePart III: Communion Feast7. "My New Testament": Wild Fruits as Scripture for a Wild CongregationPrologue: A task, unbrokenBibliography

"In this rich, comprehensive, even lyrical introduction to Thoreau and Transcendentalism, Lydia Willsky-Ciollo seeks to renew both Thoreau and divinity for a secular world. Her bold new argument gives us a Thoreau who still matters deeply, whose 'theology of the wild' is deliberate, coherent, well-founded in the history of religious thought, and profoundly meaningful today—an environmental faith not meant to be confined to a bookshelf, but to live and grow in our shared world of natural beauty and spiritual meaning." —Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau"Lydia Willsky-Ciollo has written a book that will become a classic in Thoreau studies. As Thoreau walked by streams, up mountains, and floated on rivers, this book takes the reader on a journey of a discovery of the divinity of and in nature and how Thoreau was—and how we are—connected to it. This is a book to be read, contemplated, and cherished." —Marc A. Jolley, senior lecturer in philosophy and Great Books, and director of Mercer University Press"With scholarly precision and intellectual vigor, Lydia Willsky-Ciollo reimagines Thoreau as a theologian of wildness, where nature, rebellion, and spiritual reflection converge. More than a commentary, this is a vibrant conversation across time, revealing Thoreau as both seeker and prophet. In so doing, Wildness profoundly reshapes the study of Thoreau and Transcendentalism, opening new paths for readers and scholars alike." —Morgan Shipley, Foglio Endowed Chair in Spirituality, Michigan State University"By taking up Thoreau's view of theology, Lydia Willsky-Ciollo offers an essential contribution to the deepening well of scholarship about Thoreau's religion. Wildness helpfully integrates Thoreau into his nineteenth-century theological contexts and points his twenty-first-century devotees to the sacred life he found in wildness." —Alda Balthrop-Lewis, author of Thoreau's Religion"This is the work of an accomplished scholar who knows Thoreau's biography and oeuvre intimately, with the expertise to talk about him and his beliefs in a new and provocative way. This book will be read and appreciated both by people interested in Thoreau and in the culture of the nineteenth century in general." —Philip F. Gura, author of American Transcendentalism"Wildness is an impressive achievement. Willsky-Ciollo's account is at once richly researched and written with real passion. While she clearly recognizes the limitations of Thoreau's project, she makes a compelling case for Thoreau as Nature's apostle, a prophet calling us to the wild." —John J. Kucich, author of Unsettling Thoreau