What is "Wilderness"

In my research for the final paper, I am continuing a discussion about the definition of "wilderness". I am focusing on the Christian movement within big cities, namely New York City. Let's see, when I say "wilderness", what image would usually come to the mind of readers/listeners. Prairie lands? Mountain ranges? Long trails cutting through those ranges? The desert? I think that's the stereotypical image of wilderness. But, I believe wilderness can be any landscape that takes one away from their norm. Roderick Nash states:

"There is no specific material object that is wilderness. The term designates a quality (as the "-ness" suggests) that produces a certain mood or feeling in an individual and, as a consequence, may be assigned by that person a specific place. Because of this subjectivity a universally accepted definition of wilderness is elusive."

Nash also delves deeper into the word by researching the origin of the word and says it's a place of wild beasts implying "the absence of man" (Redick, 1). This would counter my argument because Mash believes for a place to be wilderness, no articles of human beings can be found and the environment is [predominantly] of the non human (Nash, 7). I disagree. If anyone has ever been to New York City, that's a place of wild beasts! And while evidence of humans is found EVERYWHERE, one can still become bewildered therein.

But, upon further reading, the United States Congress even passed legislation denoting what is wilderness. The Wilderness Act of 1964 states:

"...an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."

"Untrammeled" means without borders - no boundaries. So, wilderness according to the United States government is a place that is in contrast to areas where man dominates.

I still assert that wilderness can be physical or mental - meaning, one can be in wilderness out in the Plains States and can be similarly bewildered within a large city.