Wilderness Theology Wilderness is a place where God meets us, sometimes most powerfully. Whether as the site of Moses’ call, the Israelites’ freedom and consecration, the inspiration of prophets, the testing of Jesus, or our own experiences today, wilderness often provides a divine reality check. One of the gifts of wilderness to Christians is deepening our appreciation for the significance of wilderness stories in the Bible. Wilderness is also an excellent place to reconnect with God—to understand God’s invisible qualities and divine nature from what God has made (Rom 1:20), to be still and appreciate God’s presence (Ps 46:10), and to remember the ways that God provides for us. Wilderness is a special place for refuge, rest, renewal, and inspiration. For these and other reasons, Christian theologians since antiquity have extolled the “Book of Nature” as a complementary resource for knowing God, reinforcing and enhancing what Christians can learn of God through scripture. But in contrast to biblical times or the early period of the American frontier, the status of wilderness is changing. Wilderness no longer looms unmistakeably at the edges of all our habitations, no longer "“threatens” to overtake our forebears’ pre-modern efforts to withstand the elements, survive and flourish. Instead, wilderness itself is now threatened on all edges by suburban development, resource extraction, and even in some cases by irresponsible recreational use. Our wilderness lands and the national system of public lands that supports them remain an impressive part of our national legacy, but preserving and maintaining that legacy is a challenge.