I have read Walden before and I thought he was romantic and idealistic at best. Reading it again, I’ve found myself unsettled by his religious yet un-Christian tone. “I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks”, he writes in paragraph 14 and later says “For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to “glorify God and enjoy him forever,” in paragraph 16. To him, nature offers the certainty of a place where he could live deliberately. Deliberately for what purpose? For himself? For “Aurora” or for nature who will never know him or care for him? To me, it is so much more hopeful to live for the glory of One who so loved the world that He gave the life and death of His son for the sake of the world.