The range of light: John Muir, Christianity, and nature in the post-Darwinian world

American attitudes toward the natural world have varied since the first humans first set foot on the continent thousands of years ago. For the most part, humans have valued the environment as a provider of raw materials that could be refined into food, clothing, and shelter. However, from time to time in the course of history, some humans have appreciated the environment for reasons other than material provisions and have sought to protect portions of the landscape from significant human alteration. John Muir, one of California's most famous literary naturalists at the turn of the twentieth century, was one of these figures. This study seeks to analyze the factors that encouraged Muir to attempt to protect landscapes that seemed both wild and scenic.;Muir stands out as one of the founding fathers of the American preservation movement. He played an instrumental role in preserving such scenic landscapes as those found in Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon national parks. Through his writings, he introduced the American public not only to the scenery of these areas but to preservation--the philosophy necessary to protect them.;Biographers and environmentalists have portrayed Muir as a liberal-minded environmental philosopher who sought to save wilderness areas from the ravages of commercial developers. They have suggested that Muir adopted philosophical positions ranging from Transcendentalism to Buddhism to account for his love for the landscape. Founded on a careful, contextual reading of Muir's articles, letters, and private journals, this study offers a revision of such ideas. It argues that John Muir valued the landscape because it could offer humans a true picture of God and God's will for mankind. In the face of a violent, chaotic Darwinian culture, Muir preached that the landscape taught mankind to live in a state of order and peace based on the Judeo-Christian concept of love. For Muir, this order had been predetermined by the creator of the earth from the beginning. Thus, unlike other biographies, this work suggests that Muir was a natural theologian driven by a conservative mentality. He sought to hold back the forces of change and modernization that he saw threatening not only the environment but human society as a whole.