Bokelskere.no

The re-discovery of virgin nature does not mean a flight of individualistic and Promethean man toward nature. While in the state of rebellion against Heaven man carries with him his own limitations even when he turns to nature. These limitiations veil the spiritual message of nature for him so that he derives no benefit from it. It is in this way that the modern urbanized citizen in search of virgin nature takes with him those very elements that destroy nature and thereby he destroys the very thing he is searching for. Nor is the re-descovery of virgin nature a return to paganism from a theological point of view. There is a profound difference between the paganism of the Mediterranean world, this idolatry of created things against which Christianity has fought, and the 'naturism' of the northern European people for whom nature possessed a symbolic and spiritual significance. The re-discovery of virgin nature with the aid of traditional principles would mean a reunification of the symbolic meaning of natural forms and the development of a spiritual sympathy (sym-pathia) for nature which has nothing to do with eiter ancient paganism and idolatry or the modern individualistic revolt. It would mean the restoration of man to his home in the cosmos.