The Evangelical "Natures" of Christian Sturm

On the grounds that appreciation of the religious foundations of broader (i.e., secular or not religiously-specific) views on matters of environmental import are often oversimplified, this paper takes up the work of the late 18^th century Lutheran pastor Christoph Christian Sturm (1740-1786), known as the “nature-preacher” for his publication of what may be called an existential almanac.   In Betrachtungen über die Werke Gottes im Reiche der Natur und der Vorsehung auf alle Tage des Jahres (1772)  Sturm offered an edificatory mini-essay on some issue regarding nature and our to it, to be read on each day of the year.   Sturm discusses divine management of the earth, human duties re: sensing creatures and resources, aesthetics, wonders of natural history, and, matters of transience.  The essays are pious, but Sturm raises hard questions.  In this paper I explore the theological implications of Sturm’s themes, which are not peculiarly Lutheran, and his enormous influence:   Not only are there multiple translations of the work, there were abridgments, adaptations, and imitations, both in Catholic and Protestant contexts.  In English alone there are over a hundred editions, adaptations, and abridgments, under a variety of titles (e.g., Sturm’s Reflections on the Works of God, and his Providence throughout All Nature [Philadelphia, 1832]).  I shall conclude by arguing that a work so extensively disseminated must leave its mark on general sensibilities, and suggest what, in Sturm’s case, these probably were.