Alda Balthrop-Lewis

I am an expert in religious ethics, especially through the study of literature and philosophy.

My first book (Thoreau's Religion, Cambridge, 2021) was on the author Henry David Thoreau, his appeal to older traditions of religious asceticism, and his significance in contemporary environmental ethics. I found that Thoreau's withdrawal in Walden Woods, rather than being apolitical, was part of his politics against slavery and growing industrial capitalism. This reframes Thoreau's significance for contemporary environmental politics.