John Muir: Spiritual Writings

The founder of the Sierra Club and ＂Father of the National Parks,＂ John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist who sparked the modern environmental movement. As his letters, journals, and other writings show, Muir’s extraordinary affinity with the natural world was grounded in a deep spirituality.

Living for months, even years, in the wilderness, he experienced a deep communion with the sacred. Muir’s contemplations on the natural world are filled with mystical intuition of God’s reality: ＂Rocks and waters, etc., are words of God and so are men. We all flow from one fountain Soul. All are expressions of one Love.＂

In exploring this little-known aspect of Muir’s work, this volume contributes to a distinctly American strain of spirituality that finds an echo in today’s environmental movement. For those who have read and admired Muir and those who want to discover him, John Muir: Spiritual Writings offers a new and inspiring look at the man and his spirituality.

Tim Flinders is author of Thomas Berry’s Sacred Surround: An Introduction to His Thought and Spirituality (Two Rock Publishing). An educator and writer, he lectures on contemplative spirituality at the Sophia Center, Holy Names Univeristy, Oakland, and is a research fellow at the Spirituality and Health Institute, Santa Clara University. He and his wife Carol are founders of the Two Rock Institute in Tomales, California.