Modern environmental awe of nature is secularized religious worship.

Evidence

Wilderness fulfills the old romantic project of secularizing Judeo-Christian values so as to make a new cathedral not in some petty human building but in God’s own creation, Nature itself. Many environmentalists who reject traditional notions of the Godhead and who regard themselves as agnostics or even atheists nonetheless express feelings tantamount to religious awe when in the presence of wilderness—a fact that testifies to the success of the romantic project. Those who have no difficulty seeing God as the expression of our human dreams and desires nonetheless have trouble recognizing that in a secular age Nature can offer precisely the same sort of mirror. — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 41

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines wilderness reverence as the secularization of Judeo-Christian sacred values.
• XREF: Feeds the course’s storytelling/interpretation thread — why environmentalists talk about nature with quasi-religious language. — connects to: Early romantic writers experienced the sublime as terror, not pleasure — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 16; Wilderness wonder is a cultural state of mind, not a natural fact — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 78; Wilderness appreciation was an elite urban leisure projection, not a rural ideal. — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 36 (+7 more)
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Related

• Wilderness is a cultural construction, not an untouched natural sanctuary (similarity 0.79)
• The secular is conceptually dependent on the idea of religion. (similarity 0.79)
• Even the senses have a history, so secular worldliness is ideological too (similarity 0.79)
• Wilderness is a cultural construct, not a place that exists apart from humanity (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Secularization transferred religious aura to art and literature. #exemplifies (0.78)
• The religious and secular are not essentially fixed categories. #expands (0.75) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 103
• Secularism claims to be separate from yet productive of religion. #expands (0.75)
• The secular is conceptually dependent on the idea of religion. #expands (0.72) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 972
• Modern replacements for otherworldly religion remain hostile to nature #qualifies (0.72) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 388
• Even the senses have a history, so secular worldliness is ideological too #expands (0.72) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 944
• The secular cannot be conceived without the category of religion. #expands (0.72) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 972