Awe at vast landscape produces a religious attitude rather than mere pleasure

Evidence

With them the sunset’s rosy bloom. The dimness of earth with me, the light of heaven with them. Here, again, worship seemed the only attitude for a human spirit, and the question was ever present, “Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him; or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?” — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 187

Categorization

• APHORISMS: The line dividing her dimness from their light offers a compact way to live with being on the shadowed side of any glory.
• XREF: connects to: Frontier religious worship was conducted with grim dolefulness. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 67; A landscape void of all human marks can inspire awe without danger. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 161; Experiencing overwhelming mountains explains the origin of nature worship. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 225 (+19 more)

Broader Connections

• Experiencing overwhelming mountains explains the origin of nature worship. #corroborates (1.00) — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 225
• Modern environmental awe of nature is secularized religious worship. #corroborates (1.00) — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 41
• Wilderness wonder is a cultural state of mind, not a natural fact #expands (1.00) — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 78
• Attention in aesthetic experience historically derives from prayer #complicates (0.90) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 436
• Mountain dawns transform the landscape into transcendent beauty that defies words #exemplifies (0.90) — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 111
• Landscape beings raise a person into their sense of place and world #complicates (0.80) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 83
• Belief in a thing’s sacredness historically precedes aesthetic enjoyment of it. #complicates (0.80)
• Ritual binds members through shared experience of awe rather than shared belief #complicates (0.80) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 871
• A secular self underlies rather than results from religious experience. #complicates (0.80) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 256
• Public displays of devotion sustain belief in a god while their absence erodes it #complicates (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 371
• Sincere religious emotion must arise from inner feeling, not public performance #complicates (0.70) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1019
• Outward religious behavior can be a means of producing inner piety #complicates (0.70) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1020
• Religious estrangement from earthly life mirrors the adventure’s fragmentary character #complicates (0.70) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 474
• Church attendance is not what triggers the felt divine gaze #complicates (0.70)
• Enthusiasm and pride name distinct feelings a single subject of both religions must hold #complicates (0.70) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1157