The Sacred Journey

The Unknown. A Journey. Discovery. Those short phrases can be used to describe a pilgrimage, but they are also personal thoughts as I perused a copy of Charles Foster’s The Sacred Journey (Thomas Nelson, 2010). Not quite knowing what to expect, I encountered a thought-provoking manual that I read in two sittings over a single afternoon. Foster, showing his passion, switches easily between hilarity, humility, honesty, and the holy.

The beauty of Foster’s book rests within the integrity of the author. He, from the beginning, states that he will anger some while appeasing others. He offers an apology at the beginning and end yet remains true to his central thesis. He traces the historical origins of pilgrimages and then describes the key elements of that journey. He continues with personal experiences, suggestions, and an answer to those that are totally opposed to any type of pilgrimage. His conclusion is powerful in that he deals with a passionate objection to pilgrimages and, in turn, reveals how that life is really an example of a pilgrimage.

Foster peppers the book with irreverent one-liners that, taken at face value, I vehemently oppose; yet, I am certain that these statements contain a deeper meaning that I have obviously missed. Those statements are part of the work’s appeal in that I will have to return to the manuscript to seek the deeper meaning. I would love nothing more than to converse about these one-liners with the author while on a pilgrimage through Scotland or Ireland.

While Foster clearly states his rationale and provides Biblical support for his analysis, I struggle with the overt simplicity of his Cain (settler) versus Abel (nomad) foundation. I wonder if too much is being read into the text; yet, regardless, the author presents a novel approach to the same old story.
The further development of this motif contains my largest critique of the work. Whereas the book asserts that God is a nomad or wanderer at heart and wants us to do likewise, Foster does not fully explain, then, why God gave His chosen people – the Hebrews – a homeland. Further, God used Gideon, one of the Hebrew judges, to expel the Midianite hordes who were a Bedouin people.

Even without closing this final loophole, Foster has written an account that I will turn to again. I do not agree with all of his conclusions, but that disagreement and self-examination is part of the journey too.


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