“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. I'm glad I went.”

“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!”

“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. And it is so well written you will reread many passages, like a person at Thanksgiving going back for seconds.“

“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.”

“Tony Jones’s 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 straight-forward 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.”

“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. Jones's 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.”

“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 he's still preaching, and church folks should listen to him.”

“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.”

“In his newest writing, 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!”