A pastor walks out of the church and into the woods, in pursuit of the God hes lost.

Millions of Americans, disillusioned with organized religion, yearn for meaning and transcendence in their lives, and many of them are finding that in nature. When pastor and theologian Tony Jones, Ph.D., had his crisis of faith, brought on by personal trauma and broken relationships, he sought solace in the outdoors - paddling a canoe, hunting with his dog, butchering deer.

When he walked out of the church and into the woods, he left the orderly pews and numbered hymns for chaotic spaces and untamed wilderness. And he re-discovered God — a God who brings peace in the midst of storms, a God who lives in the community of our fellow creatures, a God whos acquainted with death. This is the God of wild places.

In The God of Wild Places, Tony mines his own experiences, recent research in evolutionary psychology, and ancient wisdom from various spiritual and philosophical traditions to fashion lessons about solitude, the predator-prey relationship, the importance of place, risk, failure, and death, and the chaotic presence of God.

Tonys guidance in The God of Wild Places promises to introduce a generation of Americans to the transcendence available only in untamed spaces; his writing draws on wisdom from Christianity to Buddhism, Kant to Cioran, Jim Harrison to Annie Dillard. This is a journey of loss and discovery through forests and fields, lakes and streams, from knowing to unknowing, from finding to losing — from life to death, and then back to life.

Tony Jones is the author of numerous books, including Did God Kill Jesus? (HarperOne, 2016), , The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life (Zondervan 2010), and The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier (Fortress, 2019). Over the past decade, he has established himself as a highly respected outdoors writer and is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America; his articles regularly appear in the Outdoors section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Outdoor News, and Pheasants Forever Journal, and he has appeared on various outdoors-oriented radio shows. His highly acclaimed series, "Boundary Waters Passage," appeared over the course of six weeks in the summer of 2019 in the Star Tribune and won the AP Sports Editors Award for Best Project (besting the New York Times and the Washington Post) and the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists award for Best Web Project. He has subsequently won several awards from the Outdoor Writers Association of America. He hosts the Reverend Hunter Podcast on the Talk North Network, which highlights interesting people seeking spiritual encounters in their outdoors pursuits. Tony is a sought-after speaker at conferences, churches, colleges, and graduate schools, and he serves as a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. He teaches writing classes on memoir at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and leads writers retreats in Italy and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. He served as a theological consultant on the Hulu television show The Path starring Aaron Paul. He lives in Minnesota with his three children, his spouse, and their dogs.

Introduction

Chapter One: Vestments

Chapter Two: Peace

Chapter Three: Place

Chapter Four: Companions

Chapter Five: Predator

Chapter Six: Failure

Chapter Seven: Risk

Chapter Eight: Meat

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

About the Author

Poignant meditation on losing faith and rediscovering identity in the wilderness.

These collected essays celebrate the joy and serenity found in nature, especially in the wild vistas of northern Minnesota and North Dakota. Jones eloquent offerings contemplate states of being (peace, failure), aspects of daily living (marriage, companions), and explorations of intangibles (faith, God). Each themed chapter comes across like an especially engaging sermon. Theres an introductory thrilling or amusing anecdote, some autobiographical tie-in, a quote from a contemporary author, conservationist, or religious scripture, an engagement with secular reality, and a strong encouragement for self-examination. Jones comes by his passionate entreaties naturally. He grew up in the Christian church and was an ordained minister with his own congregation for over a decade. As his religious belief and self-image began to crumble, he found first escape and then solace in the outdoors. Today a self-described outdoors person, theologian, and nature writer, Jones offers thoughtful observations, rich inner conversation, and insightful spiritual musings. Whether outdoor enthusiasts or not, readers will find much to ponder.
— Booklist

In this book, theologian and outdoorsman Jones embarks on a transformative journey, poignantly exploring loss, reflection, rejuvenation, and spiritual discovery. His narrative intricately weaves together personal experiences, highlighting the profound connection between humanity and the natural world—particularly the relationship between humans, dogs, and hunting. He offers a candid portrayal of his own religious and spiritual evolution; he spent formative years in the church, became a minister, and later grappled with the collapse of his ministry and marriage. This introspective book delves into how he learned to accept failure as a catalyst for growth and navigate his changing understanding of God. He skillfully shows how the divine can speak through traditional mediums (e.g., sermons) but also through nature—a shift underscored by his own immersion in the wilderness. Drawing on classic philosophy, the book emphasizes the overwhelming yet grounding nature of the wild, where humans confront their fragility. The book includes notes and bibliography. A compelling, thematically rich, and deeply personal book, for readers exploring spirituality, personal growth, and the intricate relationship between faith and the natural world.
— Library Journal

Tony Jones’s meditative memoir The God of Wild Places is about leaving the ministry but remaining alive to spirituality through outdoor adventures in Minnesota and further afield.... The God of Wild Places is a pensive, personalized primer to developing a nature-based theology.
— Foreword Reviews

I have read a lot of books in my life, but never one like this. Wherever you are on the food chain--a passionate hunter like Tony or a cauliflower steak eater like me--this captivating memoir will take you places you might never have gone on your own: into the elemental mysteries of life, death, creatureliness, and divinity with someone who has turned from the orderliness of religion to find salvation in the God of the Wild. Im glad I went.
— Barbara Brown Taylor, Author of Leaving Church and Learning to Walk in the Dark

Decades ago, a wise man told me that the best writing is honest writing. The God of Wild Places is exactly that, honest writing—beautifully honest. So pure, so true—reading it was like breathing the fresh, crisp air of Tony Jones’s cherished wildlands. It is at once a theological history lesson and an autobiography, a rare work that inspires, teaches, and entertains. I loved it!
— Jim Shockey, host of Jim Shockeys Uncharted and author of Call Me Hunter

Tony Jones speaks into the harsh reality of an increasingly churchless world and how the Creator can be found in unexpected ways in the glorious, wild creation. By giving us a glimpse of his own journey toward a more holistic and deeper faith, Jones is sharing his own experience of seeing God as bigger than our encultured expectations. As one who has also found peace and connection with the Divine among the wild places, I resonate with Tony’s contemplations in this beautifully written memoir. I love this book as I am sure many others will.
— Pete Enns, author of Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming

I love this book. I love its honesty, its tenderness, its craft, its settings, its quests and questions, and the profound mysteries toward which it bows. It takes you places you need to go.
— Brian McLaren, author and fly fisherman

In this unflinching memoir supported by theological reflection, Tony Jones lays bare his personal wounds and the injuries of humanity caused by a lack of deep natural connection. While groomed for a clerical career, he found more salvation in the woods with his trusted hunting dog at his side. Hunting has always been for survival, he writes, adding to this fundamental human experience crucial spiritual and emotional dimensions. Jones transcendent depictions of the various habitats of his prey — ducks, turkeys, deer, and elk who roam vast mountains, lakes, and woods — are like arrows targeting the divine sublime. He endures harrowing episodes and massive losses, always restoring himself in wild places. Ultimately, the lessons from his story of transformation offer an inspiring corrective to the corrosive consumerism and crude competition of modern life in America.
— Jessica Carew Kraft, author of Why We Need to Be Wild: One Womans Quest for Ancient Human Answers to 21st Century Problems

Tony Jones walked away from church and out into the woods, and his thoughtful reflections on that soulful transition are compelling, engaging, and full of the kind of transcendent faith that this world needs now, more than ever.
— Phil Zuckerman Ph.D., associate dean, Pitzer College and author of Living the Secular Life, Society Without God, and Beyond Doubt

In The God of Wild Places, Tony Jones introspectively details his own spiritual journey that took him from his own ordination as a pastor to leaving religion behind. Like millions of Americans, Jones went on a quest to find a resting place for his soul only to discover it in the wilderness of Gods creation. Those who feel spiritually anxious and religiously adrift will find solace and encouragement in Tonys words.
— Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science, Eastern Illinois University, and author of The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going

This is the story I have been waiting for Tony Jones to tell the world, in the way that only he can: an unvarnished and intimate look at his own life, his failings, his longings, and his pursuit of God. Funny, smart, and courageous, now he debates his toughest character yet—himself—and finds the God who has followed him to all his wild places. Tony may have left organized religion, but hes still preaching, and church folks should listen to him.
— Lillian Daniel, author of Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Dont Belong To and Michigan Conference Minister of the United Church of Christ

Although Tony’s belief is still deep, his new point of view is making clearer his faith—his belief in family, in nature, and in himself. Never have I read a book that goes so deeply and personally into the act of hunting and meat as a healing and profound revelation. As a backpacker and canoeist, I very much connected with Tony’s new point of view of celebrating reverence in the wilds.
— Sean "Shug" Emery, Backpacker, Hammocker, Canoeist, YouTube Content Maker

Tony Jones’s memoir, The God of Wild Places, is a vivid narrative that sits the reader in his canoe, sharing his journey of reflection and wonder. Jones’s search reminds me of Max from the classic story, Where the Wild Things Are, another journey of self discovery in a boat, in which the reader learns when to roar and when to be silent. We need such adventures to renew our perspectives, calm our fears, and remind us that life-learning requires role models like Tony and Max. If we read carefully, they show us the way home!
— Rabbi Dr. Joseph A. Edelheit, author of What Am I Missing? Questions About Being Human

Discomfort and risk have been nearly eliminated from our modern lives. In The God of Wild Places, Tony Jones challenges us to understand the deep spiritual benefits of having a greater connection to nature and the physical and emotional risks inherent in a life in the wilderness. And he reintroduces us to the spiritual act of eating wild things—something our society lost long ago.
— Mark Norquist, Founder of Modern Carnivore

The way Tony Jones writes about God makes me want to walk out into the woods looking for my own religious experience. In this memoir, Tony does the thing that is sometimes the hardest for writers to execute, but is crucial for the reader to relate: he drops his ego and lets you really see him. His story is painful and beautiful, and had this city girl wishing for a weekend in the wilderness.
— Laura Tremaine, podcaster and author of Share Your Stuff. Ill Go First (10 Questions To Take Your Friendships To The Next Level)

Tony Joness book, centered in his experiences of hunting, is challenging. Especially for someone who has developed a deep, intimate relationship with deer. But I kept reading because I felt compelled to understand. Told with vulnerability and straightforward honesty, Jones weaves a theology of predation into his experiences of both the numinous presence in and between all things and the reciprocity of relationship that can be experienced in the act of hunting. His book helped me to weave some threads of my own journey as a gatherer into a more broad and more spiritual story of aliveness.
— Victoria Loorz, author of Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred

Tony has managed to weave together into one beautiful but foreboding tapestry, the surprisingly unpredictable nature of life in the suburbs, with the unexpected but predictable cycles of nature in the wild places. I found myself leaning in toward the page and then beyond, into the counterintuitive teaching that has always been at the heart of the wisdom of the ages. I loved it!
— Suzanne Stabile, author of The Path Between Us, The Journey Toward Wholeness, host of The Enneagram Journey Podcast, and co-author of The Road Back to You, with Ian Morgan Cron