Chris Highland

Author of Meditations of John Muir: Nature's Temple. Highland states that this book is "a simple collection of what I consider the heart of Muir's spiritual perspective, gleaned from many years of enjoying his delightful writings. The fact that I have coupled his thoughts alongside quotes from diverse spiritual sources is an intentional bow to Muir's position in my "book of natural saints." Highland is also the author of Meditations of Henry David Thoreau and Meditations of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and several other books in the series. Read reviews.

Highland writes, "I value Muir's "wild worldview" and the nature-based understanding of Life, God and the creation he espoused in his writings." A former Presbyterian minister, Highland feels great sympathy for Muir. Highland writes, "Muir felt stifled by the closed-minded, harsh ways of his father's peculiar brand of religion and the church of his youth. For him, it seems, the Church of the Wild was the only place where he could experience a closeness with the God Who is Beauty. His writings reflect his commitment to draw others into this radical experience with the spirit of all the earth."

Highland further observes that John Muir was "a saunterer in the tradition of prophets of all eras who were voices at the edges of religion -- heretics if you will -- who served to call those lost in the weeds of creeds back to the fundamentals of the "Walk", that is, the fundamentals that begin with: all lessons of the heart are present to be seen and enjoyed in the sacred natural world around us."

Highland is also the author of Wild Teachers, a novel that imagines what might have happened if John Muir and Jesus of Nazareth met.

For more background on Chris and his spiritual path in "Nature's Temple," inspired by Muir, Thoreau, and others, see:
- Chris Highland's Nature Temple