In the view of St. Benedict of Nursia, the Lenten journey is an inner pilgrimage with Christ into the deepest parts of ourselves, to be marked not so much by external observances, such as fasting and self-denial, as by a deepening of our relationship with God. Benedictine monk Albert Holtz develops that journey theme through meditations written during a fifteen-country pilgrimage while on sabbatical. At the heart of each reflection is the lesson it teaches about our inner spiritual journey. By applying Benedict’s monastic wisdom to the everyday concerns and aspirations of modern Christians, Pilgrim Road helps contemporary spiritual seekers travel along and experience the journey of Lent in the most positive, meaningful, and fruitful manner.

A guidebook to walking the Pilgrims’ Way, a 230 km (138 mile) historic pilgrimage route to Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, home of the shrine of the martyred archbishop, St Thomas Becket. With relatively easy walking on ancient pathways, it can be comfortably completed in under a fortnight. The route is presented in 15 stages ranging between 7 and 22 kms (5-14 miles) and is described from both Winchester in Hampshire (138 miles) and London’s Southwark Cathedral (90 miles), with an optional link to Rochester. 1:50,000 OS mapping for each stage Detailed information on accommodation, public transport, and refreshments for each stage Information on the historical background of the pilgrimage, historical figures, and local points of interest GPX files available to download Facilities table to help you plan your itinerary

Off the Road is a delightfully irreverent tour of the 500-mile pilgrimage route from France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain--sights people believe God once touched. Harper's contributing editor Jack Hitt writes of the many colorful pilgrims he met along the way, in this offbeat journey through landscape and belief.

The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity is the first comprehensive reference book covering every aspect of history, culture, religion, and life in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East (including the Persian Empire and Central Asia) between the mid-3rd and the mid-8th centuries AD, the era now generally known as Late Antiquity. This period saw the re-establishment of the Roman Empire, its conversion to Christianity and its replacement in the West by Germanic kingdoms, the continuing Roman Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Persian Sassanian Empire, and the rise of Islam. Consisting of over 1.5 million words in more than 5,000 A-Z entries, and written by more than 400 contributors, it is the long-awaited middle volume of a series, bridging a significant period of history between those covered by the acclaimed Oxford Classical Dictionary and The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. The scope of the Dictionary is broad and multi-disciplinary; across the wide geographical span covered (from Western Europe and the Mediterranean as far as the Near East and Central Asia), it provides succinct and pertinent information on political history, law, and administration; military history; religion and philosophy; education; social and economic history; material culture; art and architecture; science; literature; and many other areas. Drawing on the latest scholarship, and with a formidable international team of advisers and contributors, The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity aims to establish itself as the essential reference companion to a period that is attracting increasing attention from scholars and students worldwide.

The road across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela in the northwest was one of the three major Christian pilgrimage routes during the Middle Ages, leading pilgrims to the resting place of the Apostle St. James. Today, the system of trails and roads that made up the old pilgrimage route is the most popular long-distance trail in Europe, winding from the heights of the Pyrenees to the gently rolling fields and woods of Galicia. Hundreds of thousands of modern-day pilgrims, art lovers, historians, and adventurers retrace the road today, traveling through a stunningly varied landscape which contains some of the most extraordinary art and architecture in the western world. For any visitor, the Road to Santiago is a treasure trove of historical sites, rustic Spanish villages, churches and cathedrals, and religious art. To fully appreciate the riches of this unique route, look no further than The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago, a fascinating step-by-step guide to the cultural history of the Road for pilgrims, hikers, and armchair travelers alike. Organized geographically, the book covers aspects of the terrain, places of interest, history, artistic monuments, and each town and village's historical relationship to the pilgrimage. The authors have led five student treks along the Road, studying the art, architecture, and cultural sites of the pilgrimage road from southern France to Compostela. Their lectures, based on twenty-five years of pilgrimage scholarship and fieldwork, were the starting point for this handbook.

The poems in Still Possible pay homage to the invisible passage of time - the deep, private current that wends through our lives as a steadfast companion, sculpting our interior worlds as inexorably and exquisitely as its visible manifestations. Whyte turns his eye, and his pen, to the possibilities and harvests this shaping reveals: the shyness and vulnerability of love, the illusion of imperfection, and the new invitations that beckon along the way. The poems reflect an abiding faith in time's wisdom: a journey turned away from in youth waits patiently for later maturity; an early experience ripens in secret to reveal, decades later, a full understanding. Under Whyte's poet-philosopher gaze, a rain-soaked day in an Irish farmhouse becomes a meditation on the essence of a truly good day: a settled contentment, alert and open to whatever may call. Plus, sheep, Seamus Heaney and a dog. Powerful language rests on a foundationof what isn't said, a silence underpinning the eloquence of articulation. In this way, Still Possible hovers above the numinous and the unknowable - what we pray for, what we pass on, what mystery awaits and, in the end, what it might mean to be happy.

Unlike the religiously-oriented pilgrims who visit Marian shrines such as Lourdes, the modern Road of St. James attracts an ecumenical mix of largely wel.

Since the tenth century pilgrims have travelled the ancient roads through France and Spain that lead to the fabled town of Santiago de Compostela, the legendary shrine of St James the apostle. Travelling in groups for safety, they braved marauding Moorish armies, raging torrents, and fearsome mountain passes, trusting in the protection afforded them by the emblem of St James, a scallop shell.

Winding its way from Winchester to Canterbury, through the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, and Kent, can still be found one of England’s most ancient trackways. Well trodden and beloved of walkers throughout southern England, the Pilgrims’ Way serves as a hidden by-way linking those that travel along it with some of the countries oldest cathedrals, castles and abbeys, yet it remains an enigma to many of those who regularly follow its tracks. From the Neolithic through to the Victorian pilgrimists, Derek Bright brings together a mass of evidence and re-evaluates how we should view this ancient trackway that Ivan D. Margary described as one of the most important in Britain. Using evidence of roadside crime, prohibitive legislation, and the everyday hazards facing wayfarers, he makes decisive arguments for how the road has served travelers over time.

Today's tensions between the 'Islamic' East and 'Christian' West run high. Here Paul-Gordon Chandler presents fresh thinking in the area of Christian-Muslim relations, showing how Christ_whom Islam reveres as a Prophet and Christianity worships as the divine Messiah_can close the gap between the two religions. Historically, Christians have taken a confrontational or missionary approach toward Islam, leading many Muslims to identify Christianity with the cultural prejudices and hegemonic ambitions of Westerners. On the individual level, Christ-followers within Islam have traditionally been encouraged by Christians to break away from their Muslim communities. Chandler boldly explores how these two major religions_which share much common heritage_can not only co-exist, but also enrich each other. He illustrates his perspective with examples from the life of Syrian novelist Mazhar Mallouhi, widely read in the Middle East. Mallouhi, a self-identified 'Sufi Muslim follower of Christ,' seeks to bridge the chasm of misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians through his novels.