Preserving “God's Wildness” for Redemptive Baptism

Abstract

The distinctive theology of the Disciples of Christ prepared John Muir to understand nature as an agent of egalitarian, unifying, and primitive redemption. Because of God's immanent presence in the Yosemite, Muir believed that by immersing himself in the Sierra he could partake in its divinely natural redemption. This wild baptism imparted a more effective redemption than even the baptism offered by the Disciples, so Muir preached “the gospel of glaciers,” seeking to bring as many people as possible to the wilds where they would be cleansed by divine love. Because Muir feared some people were too encrusted by civilization to participate in wild religion, he developed a unique, second-person rhetoric to directly immerse his readers in “Godful beauty.”