The pre-industrial Western rural traditions were expressions of some powerful and persistent undercurrents that have survived even to contemporary times in different folk forms. Yet Callicott disregards the surviving rural folklore in Europe. The Christian traditions, particularly Roman Catholicism, have absorbed and preserved many polytheistic, polycentric and nature-worshipping elements that are yet to be seriously studied to comprehend the environmental attitude and values of Western peoples. It is a pity that the author fails to notice such a widely present and interesting aspect of the European culture. Callicott appears to confound history and tradition.
History is contingency, whereas tradition is continuity.
Similar problems can be found in the author's oversimplified characterization of Islamic environmental ethics. Islamic esoterism has been somewhat different from the Judaic and Christian varieties. The influence of Sufi doctrines and practices in mainstream Islamic cultures is far more incisive than that of Jewish Kabbala or Christian esoterism in their respective sociocultural mainstreams. The reality is very different from the scholarly appearance, however. The demarcating lines among Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina and other tribal and shamanic traditions of the Indian subcontinent and the Himalayan region are terribly misleading.