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Friluftsliv: Aesthetic and Psychological Experience of Wilderness Adventure

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Issues in Science and Theology: Nature – and Beyond

Abstract

How does one experience nature? We examine arduous experiences of extreme outdoor wilderness to gain both knowledge of experience in that particular context and a relational understanding of nature. In the context studied, friluftsliv captures core Nordic values related to contemplative, aesthetic, and meaning-making dimensions of active immersion in unmanipulated nature. We examined 26 college students in small, loosely facilitated outdoor adventure leadership and skill-building courses before, during, and after a five-day, wilderness, cross-country ski trip with overnight camping in self-built snow caves. Drawing upon aesthetics within philosophical theology and eudaimonic well-being within positive psychology, we develop an empirically driven theoretical framework for examining aesthetic and spiritual experience in nature with relevance for future theological and psychological investigations. Our study included: self-report questionnaires from positive psychology and psychology of spirituality; a novel questionnaire under development for assessing aesthetic experience in nature; and qualitative and computational text analysis of brief experience reports written during the wilderness adventure. With factor analysis of the aesthetics questionnaire, we found two aesthetic factors: one apparently relating to traditional appreciation of beauty and a second factor relating to aspects of awe, immersive communion with nature, and the sublime.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Theology, Science & Human Flourishing, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA

    Mark Graves

  2. Department of Physical Education, Volda University College, Volda, Norway

    Helga Synnevåg Løvoll

  3. Department of Religious Studies, Volda University College, Volda, Norway

    Knut-Willy Sæther

Authors
  1. Mark Graves
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  2. Helga Synnevåg Løvoll
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  3. Knut-Willy Sæther
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Graves .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Michael Fuller

  2. Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenber, Halle (Saale), Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany

    Dirk Evers

  3. Faculty of Theology, Uppsala University, Trelleborg, Sweden

    Anne Runehov

  4. Volda University College, Volda, Norway

    Knut-Willy Sæther

  5. Chaire Science et Religion, Lyon Catholic University, Lyon, France

    Bernard Michollet

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Graves, M., Løvoll, H.S., Sæther, KW. (2020). Friluftsliv: Aesthetic and Psychological Experience of Wilderness Adventure. In: Fuller, M., Evers, D., Runehov, A., Sæther, KW., Michollet, B. (eds) Issues in Science and Theology: Nature – and Beyond. Issues in Science and Religion: Publications of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31182-7_17

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