Man and the Natural World. The anthology includes authors from all time periods, disciplines, and regions of the globe, ranging from Lao Tzu and Leonardo da Vinci to Shakespeare. The anthology alludes to a cyclic pattern of thought in the West, which started with the Greek and Roman notions of nature. Through a worship of worldly gods, this view was one of reverence toward the physical world. In recent times however, Occidental thought has returned to the Greco-Roman view, according nature a high status through science.
Science is based on Greek ideas that give nature the most omnipotent role in the universe.
Torrance's radical undertaking paid off. The anthology received a number of great reviews from leading nature writers, and The Los Angeles Times called it one of the top-10 nonfiction works of the year. Prior to Encompassing Nature, Torrance wrote The Spiritual Quest, a book examining the spiritual quest among different cultures from an interdisciplinary view. He has also published several translations of plays by Sophocles, the ancient Greek playwright. According to Torrance, the translator must consider the literal meaning, the tone, the rhythm and the movement of the original poem.