What is a Wilderness?
According to The Wilderness Act of 1964, wilderness is “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain…retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed to preserve its natural conditions…”
–US Forest Service website[1]
“In God’s wildness lies the hope of the world.”
–John Muir
There are some days when I wonder if there are any truly wild places on earth. I have been lucky enough to see many parts of the world, from the African savannah to the glaciers of Alaska, and I’ve been amazed at how humanity leaves its mark on even the most remote of places. One can travel to the depths of the oceans and spot plastic bottles and other human-made materials that have sunk to the ocean floor. When hiking to the highest of mountains, Mount Everest, one will encounter littered supplies along the way; remnants of previous hiking parties. Even when someone is able to leave the atmosphere of Earth itself and venture out into space, they will encounter thousands of satellites and additional “space junk” communicating back to our homes and businesses providing weather reports, internet, and all sorts of technologies that we rely on today…including using GPS to find our way through the wilderness.
But even though humanity has left its mark seemingly everywhere by this point in time, I have certainly experienced the wilderness both near and far. You don’t have to travel to the ends of the earth to experience the wonder that being amongst God’s creation brings. More recently, I experienced it in the mountains of West Virginia just a few miles away from the congregation I served. Not more than fifteen minutes from my home I was able to park my car and venture off into the Big Draft Wilderness Area of Monongahela National Forest. There I would walk alongside the beautiful and serene waters of the Greenbrier River, admiring the grandness of the valley upon which it formed millions of years ago, and still flows today. I would hike the local wooded mountains, much older and worn than the Rockies, but also carrying many more stories to tell and lessons to share. I would find a good place to rest as I listened to the streams, watched the wildlife, and enjoyed the shade of the ancient pines and deciduous trees.
And I have experienced the spiritual wilderness within my own journeys as well; moments of uncertainty, leaving one vulnerable. There have been moments where I acknowledged that there was no map guiding me through this point in my life, yet I was called to continue forward. And while my experiences of spiritual wilderness have been sometimes of loneliness, I have also encountered fellow travelers in that wilderness, and I encountered God there.
Professor, backpacker, and author reflecting on the outdoor spiritual experience, Belden Lane, serves as a primary conversation partner for this chapter on the wilderness experience. Lane describes a “wilderness spirituality” that is centered around the lessons that the wilderness teaches us along our faith journeys.[3]
The wilderness experience transforms us both within our physical and metaphorical identities, the two helping to bring clarity to the people we were, while carving out and shaping the people we are and the people we are to become. Lane writes:
When people are drawn geographically to the remote edges of our world, they are carried metaphorically to the edges of themselves as persons, invited to an emptiness as exhilarating as it is frightening. Encountering overwhelming fierceness at the end of all possibilities, they know themselves to be loved in wild and unanticipated grace.[4]
When reflecting on the wilderness as a concept, Lane suggests that we acknowledge from the beginning that we as humans bring our own preconceived notions and expectations of the wild into our experiences. We need to accept both the literal and metaphorical experiences as part of the larger whole when it comes to speaking about the wilderness. Lane writes:
In the end, it can’t be one or the other—either scientific objectivity or creative imagination. Writing about the human experience of wilderness requires a deliberate dance between the two, rigorous attention to detail and fierce delight in beauty.[5]
We see that the wilderness experience opens us as humans to the mystery of God’s presence in our lives. The wilderness is both a physical and metaphorical reality, continually shaping and molding us as beloved children of God. Scripture shares stories of our ancestors of faith experiencing the divine time and time again within the wilderness, where they are likewise shaped and molded for God’s purposes. While the wilderness is experienced universally among faith traditions and peoples, the Christian experience has inspired language and theology that allows us to help communicate through the lens of faith. Ultimately, our wilderness experience is that of experiencing God’s love, beauty, and wonder.
Wilderness, Transition, & Wonder
[1] United States Forest Service, “Wilderness Information,” accessed August 15, 2023, https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mnf/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5084288
[3] Belden C. Lane, Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice (Oxford University Press, 2014), xvi-xvii.
[4] Belden C. Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes (Oxford University Press, 2007), 50.
[5] Belden C. Lane, Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practic, 222.
Rev. Dr. Jeff Binder 
[…] “In God’s wildness lies the hope of the World.” […]
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