Chapter 1. Introduction: Visions of nature -- Chapter 2. A ravaged land: The mining city of Broken Hill -- Chapter 3. Recovery -- Chapter 4. Bison and beyond: Artists encounter animals -- Chapter 5. To be religious -- Chapter 6. Christianity spreads from ancient roots -- Chapter 7. Souls: Pagan, Christian, Animal -- Chapter 8. Imagining nature in myths and creation stories -- Chapter 9. Hierarchical nature: Did God love all of his creatures equally? -- Chapter 10. Walafrid Strabo: Benedictine monk, Virgilian poet, mediaeval gardener -- Chapter 11. St Francis the Poverello: Little poor man of Assisi - and his followers -- Chapter 12. The Protestant Reformation, consumer capitalism and the Religious Society of Friends -- Chapter 13. The Reverend Gilbert White and the religion of nature -- Chapter 14. Pathways to the earthly paradise: The Mongul emperors -- Chapter 15. Voyagers, Explorers, Travellers and Collectors -- Chapter 16. Ways of Valuing and Appreciating Nature -- Chapter 17. Reaching an understanding and love of nature. .

This volume investigates crucial ways in which nature has been apprehended, understood and valued in different cultures and over time. It is grounded in current global concerns about growing threats to the natural environment. Through a critical appraisal of specific examples, it ranges widely over historical and contemporary attitudes and behaviours. It presents a wide ranging analysis of selected ideas and attitudes in the evolution mainly of western civilisation, from the time of the cave artists to the present day. It argues for preservation and conservation of the natural resources and beauty of the earth in the face of religious supernatural arguments and the rise of consumer capitalism and consumerism. .