Christian
travel guides.

Understood Biblically, travel as pilgrimage is solidly grounded in Biblical principles and examples. Most Evangelical Christians are, however,very wary of the word "pilgrimage" because since the Reformation it has fallen into disuse. Nevertheless, it remains true that for over 1500 years pilgrimage was an unquestioned part of Christian spirituality. Therefore, we do well to examine why the practice fell into disuse and whether ignoring such an important spiritual practice is justified by either the Bible or sound theology.

In his now classic The Chaos of the Cults [Grand Rapids, Eerdmans,1956:366] argued that cults are "the unpaid bills of the Church." He used this slogan to sensitize Christians to the need to examine themselves and their failures before condemning cults. This insight ought to cause us to reflect on the effect that the neglect of travel as a spiritual discipline had on people in Protestant lands. When this is done it seems quite clear that while Roman Catholics felt a deep connection to the Christian past when they visited places like Rome, Protestant visitors were drawn to Rome's pagan roots and this attraction in turn led to a revival of paganism in the late eighteenth an early nineteenth century. It also partially explains why so many young people who traveled around Europe in the 1960's and early 1970's found their own spiritual roots by moving on to India and Eastern religions and not by returning to Christianity unless, by chance, they encountered a place like the Swiss L'Abri.

Travel is an important social and cultural factor that often deeply affects the traveler and shapes thier spiritual outlook. Therefore, as Christians it must not be overlooked or ignored. Instead, travel must be placed within a Biblical perspective and seen in the context of Christian life and history. Anyone who doubts this has simply to go on the Internet and visit sites like Pilgrim's Progress which, despite its Christan sounding name, is devoted to Asian travel tours and Eastern spirituality. Another way of recognizing the spiritual dimensions of travel is to visit a New Age bookstore where you will find a host of books like Janet and Colin Bord's Atlas of Magical Britain [London, Chartwell, 1990], that shows people how to find their spiritual roots in neo-paganism. These books and web sites show that many people seek spiritual fulfillment through travel without considering Christianity. Yet in reality the Christianity has a far richer cultural heritage than most people recognise with deep spiritual roots that any traveler can easily tap. It is this heritage this Web Site seeks to bring alive.