Sacred Travels

I am very excited about the Likewise series of books from InterVarsity Press. Every title I have read has literally wowed me. I picked up Sacred Travels with hopes that it would be an interesting book on pilgrimage – something I know very little about, and found in it something transformative. This book is part travel essay, part historical biography, part lessons on the spiritual disciplines.

Christian George was named after Christian from Pilgrims Progress & lives up to his name by traversing across the globe to find places of spiritual significance. Randomly, throughout the travel journal he makes reference to his namesake & ties in his own experience. The reader is transported not only to other continents, but also to other eras.

Travel the roads that St. Peter, St. Francis, Martin Luther, and many other saints and pilgrims many evangelicals are not quite familiar with. Mr. George starts by telling the story of the historical figure & their travels. He then expounds on his personal pilgrimage to those sites & then he ties the two together shares insights gleaned from those travels.

This is a delightful read & one I would put at the top of my to-read list. It interweaves my love for history, travel & biblical thinking masterfully & prodded me to learn more about the places he visited as well as look for my own sites for pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage is a spiritual discipline we evangelicals tend to leave for the eastern religions, but after reading about the spiritual enlightenment which Mr. George experienced from his travels, I realize that by ignoring it as a discipline, we are the ones who have lost out.