Book contents
- Thoreau’s Religion
- Reviews
- Series page
- Thoreau’s Religion
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Why Thoreau Would Love Environmental Justice
- 1 Thoreau’s Social World
- 2 The Politics of Getting a Living
- 3 Thoreau’s Theological Critique of Philanthropy
- 4 Political Asceticism
- 5 Delight in True Goods
- Conclusion: The Promise of a Delighted Environmental Ethic
- Epilogue: On Mourning
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Delight in True Goods
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2021
Book contents
- Thoreau’s Religion
- Reviews
- Series page
- Thoreau’s Religion
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Why Thoreau Would Love Environmental Justice
- 1 Thoreau’s Social World
- 2 The Politics of Getting a Living
- 3 Thoreau’s Theological Critique of Philanthropy
- 4 Political Asceticism
- 5 Delight in True Goods
- Conclusion: The Promise of a Delighted Environmental Ethic
- Epilogue: On Mourning
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
At the end of Chapter 2, I suggested that Thoreau’s rhetorical posture in Walden – especially the long, narrative, descriptive, middle of the book – was guided by his conviction that persuasion requires a seduction to the good. This may have been a conviction he acquired early, in his dissatisfaction with the philosophy of education in which he was tutored at Harvard and which he was encouraged to pursue in his short, ten-day career as a school teacher at Concord’s Center Grammar School. He had good reason to think that the political and economic views he was advancing would fail to persuade if they were presented merely as a logical argument.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Thoreau's ReligionWalden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism, pp. 209 - 247Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021