Engaging with the underlying question of what constitutes “nature,” this volume explores the metaphysical issues engrained in modern discourse around nature, especially in the context of the religious experience of nature.

This book explores how phenomenology and the philosophy of nature question the indirect relation of any subject or object to nature. While overcoming the dualisms of body and mind and nature and freedom derived from phenomenology, the contributors re-examine the sacred realm of nature. These perspectives draw on religious motifs such the Christian notion of life as Christ, Vedantic life as Sat, Islamic God as truth, and other concepts across traditions which connect life and nature.

The featured essays explore the intersection of the experience of nature and the phenomenology of religion, discuss the concept of wilderness as it is debated within eco-phenomenology, and explore the question of unity and difference in the context of nature. Through these essays, the volume brings together both established scholars and early career researchers and, through the diversity of such voices, contributes to research in the phenomenology of nature, metaphysics, and the philosophy of religion.

Felix Ó Murchadha is Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland.
Mary Shanahan is Director of Religious Education in the School of Education at St. Angela's College in the National University of Ireland.