Jacob's Wound: A Search for the Spirit of Wildness

A.J. Pell is editor of the Canadian Evangelical Review and an instructor
of Liturgy, Anglican Studies Program, Regent College, Vancouver.

Trevor Herriot is a Saskatchewan writer with broad interests. While a
cradle Catholic who lapsed and then returned to his church, he is
familiar with many other spiritual traditions. The offspring of a family
of prairie farmers, he has an affinity for the land and for the peoples,
First Nations and settlers, who have nurtured, abused, and lived off the
land. These many interests are intertwined in Jacob’s Wound.

The title refers to the night-long wrestling session between the Hebrew
patriarch Jacob and a “man” traditionally thought to be God (Genesis
32:33–32). Herriot sees the “man” as Jacob’s twin brother Esau,
and the wrestling match as the struggle between hunters who are in tune
with nature and settled folk, farmers and town dwellers, who seek to
control and use nature. But the true dominant image of the book is Mount
Carmel. In the Bible it was the place where the prophet Elijah defeated
the pagan prophets in a spiritual marathon (1 Kings 18:20–40), and
where spiritual seekers and prophets (Hebrew, Christian, Muslim, and
Baha’i) have sought refuge and revelation. Mount Carmel is also a hill
near Muenster, Saskatchewan, that is the site of a Catholic shrine
associated with St. Peter’s Abbey. This is the image of Herriot’s
spiritual and literary quest.

Herriot writes with a fluidity that mesmerizes. The facts he provides
about Saskatchewan, the Metis and Aboriginals of his province, the
history of the area, farming methods and farm economics are all most
interesting. The spiritual issues he raises are important to many
people. But ultimately there is just too much in this book: too many
words and ideas, and too much about Herriot and his family. As the text
moves on, the reader feels submerged in excess. Perhaps this should have
been two books.