Wildness: Lydia Willsky-Ciollo in conversation with Richard Higgins

In Wildness: Henry David Thoreau and the Making of an American Theology, Lydia Willsky-Ciollo reintroduces Henry David Thoreau as a thinker whose spiritual vision emerged through lived experience of the natural world. From his years after college through his time at Walden Pond, Thoreau developed a theology rooted not in doctrine but in wildness itself—shaped by walking, observing, and his daily work as a surveyor.
In conversation with Richard Higgins, Willsky-Ciollo explores how Thoreau’s theology reflects enduring American tensions between wilderness and civilization, progress and tradition, individual and society. At the heart of this discussion is Thoreau’s invitation to readers: theology is an active, unfinished practice, and the work of interpreting the sacred in the wild belongs to us all.
This event will also be available online. To attend virtually, please Register on Zoom