New York Times article

[John Gilliland]

Opinion | One Cure for Malnutrition of the Soul (Published 2019)

We are spiritual beings. That’s why I joined the millions of people who make some form of religious pilgrimage.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Bradypus]

I read the book this week. Interesting and occasionally quite challenging. Not a simple travelogue: many diversions into church history and theological issues. Egan also steps off the Via Francigena to visit Geneva and Florence and tells something of their religious history too.

 

[Bradypus]

And a podcast interview with Timothy Egan talking about the motivation for his journey on a local radio station in California:

Journalist Timothy Egan Explores Faith on Journey From England to Rome

Following the death of his mother and during a time of crisis in the Catholic Church, New York Times columnist Timothy Egan decided to examine his own connection to the Catholic faith. A self-described "skeptic by profession," Egan embarked on a thousand-mile, months-long journey from Canterbury...

player.fm

 

[jayree]

I am forever indebted to Timothy Egan, who lives in Seattle, for one of his early books, "The Good Rain." After reading it my wife, who is not a hiker or backpacker, said "Let's backpack The Enchanted Valley" (in Olympic National Park). So I organized a week to walk with our preteen kids. It was a great family experience. I suspect that many who read his newest book will be inspired to walk the Via Francigena or some part of it. Egan is a compelling and gifted writer as perhaps you can see from his brief NYT article.

 

[timr]

I read the book this week. Interesting and occasionally quite challenging. Not a simple travelogue: many diversions into church history and theological issues. Egan also steps off the Via Francigena to visit Geneva and Florence and tells something of their religious history too.

I received the book, in print form, today. A susbtantial work! I will have to defer reading it until coming back from walking Invierno...... But I am looking forward to it.

 

[jgpryde]

I read the book this week. Interesting and occasionally quite challenging. Not a simple travelogue:

Indeed, I think books with “Pilgrimage” in the title s/b a special sub-genre of Travelogue as they cover both physical and emotional territory.
I’m not finished yet but I took umbrage with his remarks about CtD pilgrims in Reims France where he says

“...they exude a sense of superiority. When I explain to a sunbaked Scandinavian that I’m taking the camino less traveled, he gives me a dismissive eye roll, as if I’m on an inferior road to revelation.”

Gosh, are we really that...tribal?
Egan has a lot of axes to grind in this book so perhaps his indignation here is just mis-directed frustration or maybe it’s trail fatigue. Whatever, I’ll read on.

 

[Bradypus]

Gosh, are we really that...tribal?

Sadly the answer is sometimes "yes". After finishing the Camino Primitivo I met a young man in Santiago who had just walked from SJPDP. On hearing I had walked from Oviedo he asked if I had any plans to walk "the real Camino" sometime.....

 

[timr]

I’m not finished yet but I took umbrage with his remarks about CtD pilgrims in Reims France where he says

I suspect I am being dense but just tell me what CtD is please?

 

[jgpryde]

I suspect I am being dense but just tell me what CtD is please?

I typed it and I have no idea. I probably meant CdS [Camino de Santiago]. Alas, the path of intention from brain to fingers is a slow and meandering amble.


“...Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

-jgp
{8^)

 

[TMcA]

I am kind of wrestling with this book... And I'm trying to keep this post short.

After 200+ pages the author finally meets a collection of fellow hikers (maybe cyclists, also) with whom he enjoys a nice evening. In earlier pages almost nothing about interactions with other walkers/pilgrims except the nearly dismissive and snarky mention of those he met in Reims (this part of @jgpryde's post). His experience in this regard is so very different from mine, where the intereactions with others has really been the thing I have enjoyed most about hiking the Camino routes.

I personally left Catholicism about 55 years ago and have never looked back. But in this book Egan, a lapsed Catholic of some years, seems to be drawn back to it (Catholicism) again and again as he transits the VF and dives deeply into the historic abuses foisted upon non-Catholic peoples by the union of the church hierarchy and royal heads of city states or geographic entities.

The author has now crossed into Italy where he has some language ability and his outlook seems to have become sunnier. I look forward to seeing where his journey of the mind takes him. And me.

PM me if you'd like to comment.

 

[AZgirl]

I am kind of wrestling with this book... And I'm trying to keep this post short.

After 200+ pages the author finally meets a collection of fellow hikers (maybe cyclists, also) with whom he enjoys a nice evening. In earlier pages almost nothing about interactions with other walkers/pilgrims except the nearly dismissive and snarky mention of those he met in Reims (this part of @jgpryde's post). His experience in this regard is so very different from mine, where the intereactions with others has really been the thing I have enjoyed most about hiking the Camino routes.

I personally left Catholicism about 55 years ago and have never looked back. But in this book Egan, a lapsed Catholic of some years, seems to be drawn back to it (Catholicism) again and again as he transits the VF and dives deeply into the historic abuses foisted upon non-Catholic peoples by the union of the church hierarchy and royal heads of city states or geographic entities.

The author has now crossed into Italy where he has some language ability and his outlook seems to have become sunnier. I look forward to seeing where his journey of the mind takes him. And me.

PM me if you'd like to comment.

I ordered this, and it would be great to chat about it once I get it!