Practice Resurrection: And Other Essays

A student of Wendell Berry and Guy Davenport, Erik Reece is a strong and eloquent voice for a new generation of dedicated activists fighting on behalf of the embattled wilderness and the future of our planet. A master of the personal essay, his work has also deeply explored the role of religion in the American family.

In Reece’s new collection of essays, Practice Resurrection, ideas are the main characters. Written over ten years, and revealing Reece’s continued obsession with religion, family and the natural world, in many ways these essays represent a sequel to his stirring memoir, An American Gospel: On Family, History and the Kingdom of God. In that book, Reece intimately describes his conflicted relationship with Christianity in the context of the death of his father, a Baptist minister from rural Virginia who committed suicide at age thirty-three, and Reece’s own journey since then to find meaning and balance in the material and spiritual worlds.

Approaching variably through the lenses of travel, economics, and environmental stewardship, and with the ideas of great American thinkers (Thoreau, Berry, Davenport, Emerson) echoing in the background, Practice Resurrection provide readers refreshing new ways to value human spirituality and the natural environment.