Drawing on Richard Powers’s Pulitzer-winning novel The Overstory (2018), this article explores the limits of human wisdom (or why humans persist in denying what we know about the earth, especially what we knew as children) and wisdom’s bounty within the wider world, unknown, untapped, unprotected, and disrespected, with a particular focus on trees. It asks how people (the author included but especially white westerners) have come to disbelieve the intelligence of the nonhuman and, as a consequence, resist the ecological disaster wrought by our cherished obliviousness, and it argues for tree knowledge as a reasonable Christian claim, despite warnings that such claims reflect heresy. Influenced by Powers and Lewis Rambo, the essay asks about conversion—what will it take to convert us?—and suggests that pastoral theology’s responsibilities include an embrace of seeing more through fiction and trees.

中文翻译：

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树木和“未经思考的已知”：非人类的智慧（或者人类“有没有大脑”？）

本文借鉴了理查德鲍尔斯的普利策获奖小说 The Overstory (2018)，探讨了人类智慧的局限性（或为什么人类坚持否认我们对地球的了解，尤其是我们在孩提时代所了解的）以及智慧在更广阔的世界中的恩赐、未知、未开发、未受保护和不受尊重，特别关注树木。它询问人们（包括作者，尤其是西方白人）是如何开始不相信非人类的智慧，并因此抵制我们所珍视的遗忘所造成的生态灾难的，它认为树木知识是合理的基督教主张，尽管警告称此类说法反映了异端邪说。受鲍尔斯和刘易斯·兰博的影响，