Pilgrimage - The Sacred Art: Journey to the Center of the Heart (The Art of Spiritual Living)
Kujawa-Holbrook, an Episcopal priest and theology professor, offers a cogent, thorough exploration of both the universal and the particular aspects of pilgrimage that have shaped human tradition and can be experienced today. She shows the similarities and differences of the act and meaning of pilgrimage among various religious practitioners, including the Abrahamic traditions, Buddhism, and Hinduism. She then discusses the roles pilgrimage has had for artists, in Western literary tradition, and even secular pastimes. She draws from psychological and theological texts and studies, including the Turners’ anthropological examination of Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture, Jung’s writings, and novels such as Coelho’s The Alchemist, weaving insights from each and all smoothly into her own analysis of a pilgrimage’s stages—separation, transition, and incorporation. Today a pilgrimage can even be taken via the Internet. A useful text for both laity and scholars in any tradition, and the handful of guiding questions ending each chapter invite the reader to undertake a pilgrimage, even when none had been previously considered. --Francisca Goldsmith