This thesis presents a contemporary literary-historical and theoretical reappraisal of the poetry of the Slovenian poet, linguist, and priest Urban Jarnik (1784–1844). The central methodological approach is based on ecocriticism. The thesis first outlines in detail the development of ecocritical theory and its various branches. The theoretical framework is further complemented by a reference to the Slovenian discussion on descriptive nature poetry. At the core of the thesis is a meticulous ecocritical and theological analysis of selected poems by Jarnik. The author rejects older interpretations that viewed God in Jarnik's work as an element alien to nature. On the contrary, the analysis demonstrates that Jarnik constructs his poetry of nature on the foundations of Christian symbolic (cataphatic) theology, where the material world serves as a medium of divine revelation. Through the empirical experience of natural cycles, the industriousness of the animal world, and the recognition of the planetary boundaries of human fecundity, Jarnik establishes a theocentric, yet distinctly environmentalist ethic. In his work nature functions as a universal ontological community that leads humanity, through aesthetic pleasure, to the knowledge of the Creator and towards the way of a good life.
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