Thoreau’s God

(Run Time: 6:12)

Thoreau? I know him! Well, I know the name. I’m sure I know who he is… don’t I? The nature guy, right?

Henry David Thoreau’s spiritual life is a riddle. Thoreau’s passionate critique of formal religion is matched only by his rapturous descriptions of encounters with the divine in nature. He fled the church only to pursue a deeper communion with a presence he felt at the heart of the universe. He called this illimitable presence many names, but he often called it God.

In Thoreau’s God, Richard Higgins invites seekers — religious or otherwise — to walk with the great Transcendentalist through a series of meditations on his spiritual life. Thoreau offers us no creed, but his writings encourage reflection on how to live, what to notice, and what to love. Though his quest was deeply personal, Thoreau devoted his life to communicating his experience of an infinite, wild, life-giving God. By recovering this vital thread in Thoreau’s life and work, Thoreau’s God opens the door to a new understanding of an original voice in American religion that speaks to spiritual seekers today.

Included in your purchase, exclusively on Audiobrary:

• An interview between the author, Richard Higgins, and Julia Whelan, which feels like office hours with your favorite professor (Run Time 33 minutes)
• A soundscape from Julia’s favorite place to sit, outside of her booth, and just… be (Run Time: 10 minutes)

Richard Higgins (Author) is a writer, book editor and the author or editor of four books, including, most recently, Thoreau’s God, from the University of Chicago Press, which explores Thoreau’s iconoclastic religious vision, and Thoreau and the Language of Trees, about Thoreau’s multifaceted love of trees. He is also the coauthor of Portfolio Life and a volume editor of the essay collection Taking Faith Seriously from Harvard University Press. A staff writer for The Boston Globe for 20 years, Richard lives in Concord and is a member of the Thoreau Society board. A graduate of Holy Cross College, Columbia Journalism School, and Harvard Divinity School, Richard has written for The New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Century, American Scholar and other publications.

Julia Whelan (Narrator) Dubbed "The Adele of Audiobooks" by The New Yorker, Julia Whelan is an author, screenwriter, lifelong actor, and acclaimed audiobook narrator of over 600 titles. Her performance of her own debut novel, the international bestseller My Oxford Year (coming soon to Netflix), garnered a Society of Voice Arts award. Her 2022 novel, Thank You For Listening, was a Best-of-the-Year pick at Amazon, Audible, and NPR as well as a Goodreads Choice Award nominee and winner of the Golden Poppy. She is the founder of Audiobrary, a new audio publishing company and app, and her latest books – the 8-part romance audio series Casanova LLC and the annotated Victorian poetry anthology The Poetry Of My Oxford Year – debuted exclusively on Audiobrary. She is also a Grammy-nominated audiobook director, a former writing tutor, a half-decent amateur baker, and a certified tea sommelier. jmwhelan.com