Summary Of Max Oeschlaeger's The Idea Of Wilderness

Max Oeschlaeger is an American ecological philosopher. Oeschlaeger received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University. He is affiliated with the department of philosophy and religion studies at the University of North Texas. Oeschlaeger’s book The Idea of Wilderness was published through the Yale University Press.

Similar to Zuk’s book Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet, and How We Live, Oeschlaeger discusses agriculture and how it has impacted humans and society. In this text, Oeschlaeger discusses the impacts of agriculture from a historic and religious perspective. There is a common theme found throughout this text: agriculture and religion are interconnected. The concept of a linear timeline is a prominent concept when Oeschlaeger elaborates on this interconnectedness. The author states that this linear interconnectedness of agriculture and religion has impacted current perceptions of nature.
Shepard claiming that we must separate ourselves from history, and that history is a western invention which has a central theme that rejects habitat. Oeschlaeger responds to many, if not all, of the ideas that Shepard presents in this quotation. He begins by discussing the roots of the term Eden, and then discusses the transition from a hunting-foraging way of life to an agricultural way of life. Oeschlaeger states that before the agricultural revolution humankind altered the natural world very little, but after this revolution, humankind altered the natural world much