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God Keep Our Land: What is the Experience of God in Alberta's Wilderness

  • Author / Creator
    Andrew Barrett Craig
  • The thesis, God Keep Our Land, investigates the relationship between geography and spirituality. To this end, our setting is Alberta’s wilderness and the characters herewith are a combination of historical personalities in text and contemporary interviewees as per the research behind this project. The product is a reflection of spirituality as articulated in the context of an eco-theological paradigm. To be sure, this is not a systematic theological development or meta-narrative on the varieties of religious experiences in a natural setting. Instead, this thesis attends to an underlying premise: that geography and the human experience are inter-related, and, that such a conversation necessarily attends to a post-modern fascination with the authenticity of phenomena. The significance of this work rests on the observation that there exists both environmental and spiritual disillusionment in this current era, and, that their synthesis offers insight into possible congregational directions in our twenty first century. The qualitative research conducted here represents a blend of historical and phenomenological approaches, via literature reviews and interviews respectively. In order to articulate something authentic about Alberta, geography is discussed and defined according to its parameters: historical, societal, and natural. Subsequent to this, it is the narrative of this project that synthesizes the dialectic between geography and spiritual experience. What God Keep Our Land uncovers is Alberta’s authentic geographic factors and their spiritual consciousness. From this, it is observed that Alberta’s spirit is a unique summons to a peoples’ awareness; an eco-theological wake-up that transcends seasonal and denominational boundaries.

  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Graduation date
    2011
  • Type of Item
    Thesis
  • Degree
    Master of Theological Studies (Honours)
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/R35H7C76T
  • License
    This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.
  • Language
    English
  • Institution
    St. Stephen's College
  • Degree level
    Master's
  • Supervisor / co-supervisor and their department(s)
  • Examining committee members and their departments
    • Rev. Dr. Brian Goodings
    • Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Wilfong-Pritchard