“I will lift up mine eyes unto the
hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth.”
-
Psalm 121:1-2
As detailed in Evan Berry’s Devoted to Nature, mountains and forests
have held significance in literature, theology, and popular culture as “sacred”
natural spaces. Hebrew scripture links mountains with security, height, and
fertility, with noted reverence toward religious focal points like Mount Sinai
and Mount Zion in the Old Testament and Mount Tabor and Mount of Olives in the
New Testament (105-106, 107). Mountains in the Holy Land evoked a sense of
power, both from their massive size and their ability to protect Israelites
from enemies (106). First and foremost, mountains represented to the Israelites
the throne of God on high, a window into heaven and what religious historian
Rudolph Otto called “mysterium tremendum,
the terror which is beyond apprehension (107). Thus Christianity is rooted in
its deep symbolism of mountains. Less allusion to forests exists in Christian
literature, as their shade often evoked feelings of helplessness or temptation,
but recreation soon brought about an enthusiasm for natural flora and fauna.
Catholics often
established monasteries in mountains, believing these areas to be “religiously
charged,” and mystics like John Ruusbroec proclaims that proximity to the
cosmic sun equated to proximity to the Son of God, Jesus Christ (110, 112). At
the turn of the twentieth century, the secular “glacier gospel” of John Muir
sent followers into the mountains to elevate and purify their spirits (119,
120). The nineteenth century focus on outdoor recreation led to the popularity
of “muscular Christianity” and “natural theology” (123, 125). Borrowing from
ancient pagan imagery, liberal Protestants of this time urged its congregations
to enter into a spiritual journey in the outdoors, filled with unimaginable supernatural
experiences (126-127). Following the advent of the automobile and national park
system, America’s natural wonders were at their most accessible, and
“pilgrimage” was the word en vogue to describe the spiritual experience
awaiting visitors (134-135). Rapidly expanding industrialization and urban
sprawl in the twentieth century moved many Americans to seek measures to
preserve and conserve natural resources, to restore and/or maintain “God’s
Gardens” (145). Many Christians continue to see a restoring of natural habitats
not as an ascetic fix but a restoration of the Garden of Eden to its state
before man’s corruption (146).
Hiking, biking, camping, climbing,
one can still today observe “outdoor recreation as a national pastime and as an
expression of American environmental sentiments” (103). While not in the vogue
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, outdoor recreation is still relatively
common practice, albeit often without an intended religious purpose. Stewardship
of God’s creation in nature remains a reinforced message of most churches, in the Catholic,
Mormon,
and Seventh
Day Adventist Churches for example. By exploring the wilderness,
particularly mountains and forests, many Christians felt, and continue to feel,
that they can absorb the divine presence and goodness of God while being
absorbed into a God’s pure, natural, persevering creation, sheltered from the
busyness of modern life.
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