A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers : Henry David Thoreau’s Process Theology

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to suggest an alternative to the interpretation of Thoreau’s first published book as a metaphor for an internal journey of self-improvement which will remove many critics’ objections of digressions in the work. I propose that instead it should be understood as showing three processes within this journey: personal autonomy, understanding of natural materialism and the eventual finding of spiritual n which is eternal, not phenomenal, learned through meditation upon consciousness rather than through sensory perception. The key here is the understanding of higher law.