The Vision of John Muir

The Vision of John Muir

Topic of Choice

November 23, 2015

To many, the Scottish-American naturalist writer, John Muir, is the Father of the National Park System. His passion for preservation contributed greatly to the passing of the National Park Bill in 1890. Muir grew up in a rigorous Calvinist home in Scotland. At an early age he learned the Bible. However, he always felt religion to be stifling and stagnant. It was not until his first summer in the Sierra-Nevada mountains, in northern California that Muir was struck by the Divine. In the Yosemite Valley he experienced the ecstasy of God’s grandeur on an unparalleled scale. Muir’s writings exclaim over the glorious mountains as the handiwork of God. He fell in love with a wild and elusive world in which everything belonged. Journeying through the rugged beauty of the Sierra-Nevada’s, Muir observed the interconnectedness of everything in the natural world, attributing this phenomena to the providence of God’s hand. Perhaps without even realizing it, Muir remained consistent in his Calvinist upbringing. Calvin himself, following the Augustinian tradition, emphasized the importance of reading two books: the book of creation and the book of Scripture. God’s glory was impressed in every crevice, flowing through every stream, singing with every bird, and shining like every glistening mountain top. Muir was convicted that the wildness he found in nature must reveal the wildness within the very heart of it’s Creator. His wonder and gratitude toward nature instilled in him a sensitivity toward ecological issues. It called him to take up the cause of environmental justice as a moral concern.