*Stoll, Mark. Inherit the Holy Mountain: Religion and the Rise of

Library Journal
May 15
*Stoll, Mark. Inherit the Holy Mountain: Religion and the Rise of
American Environmentalism. Oxford Univ. Jun. 2015. 416p. illus.
notes. bibliog. index.
ISBN 9780190230869. $39.95. REL
Stoll (history, environmental studies, Texas Tech Univ.;
Protestantism, Capitalism, and Nature in America) presents a
remarkable and eye-opening study in the history of ideas; he
demonstrates nothing less than the vivid impact of faith traditions
on citizen action and public policy relevant to the environment in
the United States. Contrary to what one might expect, it was the
heritage of Calvinism (Presbyterians and Congregationalists) that
created and fed the particularly American feeling about the natural
world and the human relationship to it, and therefore shaped a
great deal of governmental policy. The history itself is fascinating,
but Stoll’s conclusion, that “the decline of environmentalism
shadowed the waning of Presbyterianism,” given that there has
been no major environmental legislation since 1990, is chilling. A
certain passion has been extinguished with the loss of religious or
postreligious motive. VERDICT A superb and lush history of the
environmentalist impulse seen through the lens of faith traditions.