cover image Goatwalking: 2a Guide to Wildland Living

Goatwalking: 2a Guide to Wildland Living

James Corbett, Jim Corbett. Viking Books, $19.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-670-82846-3

Rancher, goatherd, teacher, Quaker and social activist, Corbett tells us how to take care of goats and advocates ``goatwalking'' (a form of pastoral nomadism) as a means of practicing survival in desert wastelands. But this is only an introduction to ``covenanting'' (learning to exist in harmony with all life forms) and to ``errantry'' (going beyond society's established ways to live according to our inner leanings). In the second half of this book, Corbett relates his experiences in the political sanctuary movement, personally escorting Central American refugees across the Mexican-U.S. border. He discusses civil disobedience and civil initiative, church-state relations, morality and formal religion. Corbett's open, provocative statement about the interconnections of faith, work and social responsibility will interest theologians and philosophers as well as environmentalists. (June)