The Humanities Institute invites you to join us in celebration and launch of the new book Wildness: Henry David Thoreau and the Making of an American Theology, by Dr. Lydia Willsky-Ciollo, Professor of Religious Studies.

September 22, 2026, 4:30 – 6:00 PM in the Kelley Center Presentation Room. 

Wine, beverages, and light appetizers will be served! 

In Wildness: Henry David Thoreau and the Making of an American Theology, Lydia Willsky- Ciollo articulates how Thoreau was enmeshed in a decades-spanning project of crafting a theology of wildness. During Thoreau’s post-college years and his time at Walden Pond, he evolved from hopeful writer to observant theologian, whose primary work as a surveyor enabled his theological vocation.

Willsky-Ciollo guides readers through Thoreau’s writings and life as his theology emerges and evolves. The focus of Thoreau’s theology—wildness itself—centers on the divinity extant in every person and in every molecule of creation. While remaining critical of dogmatism and institutional rigidity, he formed his theological vision in conversation with the Christianity of his own time and place. Ultimately, Willsky-Ciollo argues that for Thoreau, theology is an active process, and that the interpretation wild, divine revelation is the purview of all. Thoreau left the door open to his readers, who he hoped would pick up the pen where he left off and write their own theologies of wildness.