Monday, April 9, 2007

transplanting versus transforming

Ashley Smith
Transplanting vs. transforming-responding to “Making Nature Sacred,” by John Gatta

“Despite their anxiety to discern signs of personal conversion, religious-minded immigrants to New England were more interested in transplanting than in transforming English culture” (Gatta, 17).

When I first came across this excerpt I was not certain of what Gatta meant by the terms “transplanting” and “transforming”. My first thought was that by transplanting he may have meant to convey to the reader that the English did not seek to change their way of life, culture, and belief; rather, the English sought to practice the beliefs that they had been practicing all along in England, but in a new location (America). In simpler terms, I think that Gatta meant that the English who immigrated to America wanted to simply practice their old religious beliefs and ways, just in America rather than England. The English did not seek to change their beliefs when arriving upon American soil, but rather to change the place in which they practiced and studied their religion. This is interesting to me because Belden Lane talked a lot about the significance of place in his book, “Landscapes of the Sacred.” Lane wrote a substantial amount on the connection between spirituality and place, and the “sacredness” of place. So, perhaps the place in which the English chose to practice their beliefs had a great impact on how they felt, connected with, and acted towards their faith.

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