Carrying only basic camping equipment and a collection of the world's great spiritual writings, Belden C. Lane embarks on solitary spiritual treks through the Ozarks and across the American Southwest. For companions, he has only such teachers as Rumi, John of the Cross, Hildegard of Bingen, Dag Hammarskjöld, and Thomas Merton, and as he walks, he engages their writings with the natural wonders he encounters--Bell Mountain Wilderness with Søren Kierkegaard, Moonshine Hollow with Thich Nhat Hanh--demonstrating how being alone in the wild opens a rare view onto one's interior landscape, and how the saints' writings reveal the divine in nature. The discipline of backpacking, Lane shows, is a metaphor for a spiritual journey. Just as the wilderness offered revelations to the early Desert Christians, backpacking hones crucial spiritual skills: paying attention, traveling light, practicing silence, and exercising wonder. Lane engages the practice not only with a wide range of spiritual writings--Celtic, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, and Sufi Muslim--but with the fascination of other lovers of the backcountry, from John Muir and Ed Abbey to Bill Plotkin and Cheryl Strayed. In this intimate and down-to-earth narrative, backpacking is shown to be a spiritual practice that allows the discovery of God amidst the beauty and unexpected terrors of nature. Adoration, Lane suggests, is the most appropriate human response to what we cannot explain, but have nonetheless learned to love. An enchanting narrative for Christians of all denominations, Backpacking with the Saints is an inspiring exploration of how solitude, simplicity, and mindfulness are illuminated and encouraged by the discipline of backcountry wandering, and of how the wilderness itself becomes a way of knowing-an ecology of the soul.

Carrying only basic camping equipment and a collection of the world's great spiritual writings, Belden C. Lane embarks on solitary spiritual treks through the Ozarks and across the American Southwest. For companions, he has only such teachers as Rumi, John of the Cross, Hildegard of Bingen, Dag Hammarskjöld, and Thomas Merton, and as he walks, he engages their writings with the natural wonders he encounters--Bell Mountain Wilderness with Søren Kierkegaard, Moonshine Hollow with Thich Nhat Hanh--demonstrating how being alone in the wild opens a rare view onto one's interior landscape, and how the saints' writings reveal the divine in nature. The discipline of backpacking, Lane shows, is a metaphor for a spiritual journey. Just as the wilderness offered revelations to the early Desert Christians, backpacking hones crucial spiritual skills: paying attention, traveling light, practicing silence, and exercising wonder. Lane engages the practice not only with a wide range of spiritual writings--Celtic, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, and Sufi Muslim--but with the fascination of other lovers of the backcountry, from John Muir and Ed Abbey to Bill Plotkin and Cheryl Strayed. In this intimate and down-to-earth narrative, backpacking is shown to be a spiritual practice that allows the discovery of God amidst the beauty and unexpected terrors of nature. Adoration, Lane suggests, is the most appropriate human response to what we cannot explain, but have nonetheless learned to love. An enchanting narrative for Christians of all denominations, Backpacking with the Saints is an inspiring exploration of how solitude, simplicity, and mindfulness are illuminated and encouraged by the discipline of backcountry wandering, and of how the wilderness itself becomes a way of knowing-an ecology of the soul.

This book explores the relationship between long-distance hiking—in this case, hiking the Appalachian Trail—and spiritual pilgrimage. Kip Redick interprets the Appalachian Trail as a site of spiritual journey and those who hike the wilderness trail as unique contemporary pilgrims.

“The wholeness of the life we seek is one that we are seldom able to envision in advance. It takes a shape that only the desert knows.” Desert Spirituality and Cultural Resistance: From Ancient Monks to Mountain Refugees is a passionate exploration of the theme of wilderness in the spiritual life. These three lectures by accomplished storyteller and theologian Belden Lane are inspirational in a way that lectures rarely are. Lane urges us to think courageously about the place of wilderness in Christian life. He contemplates the radical lives of the fourth-century Desert Fathers and Mothers, as well as the courageous example of sixteenth-century Anabaptists. He speaks of the ways in which wilderness can relate to the practice of a counter-cultural spirituality today, and he asks: Can desert and mountain gift us with a language to understand the experiences in our lives when we are taken to the edge, finding ourselves isolated and alone, both spiritually and culturally? “The wilderness is a place of suffering, out on the edge. It is a place of letting go, a place for dying, and yet also a place for coming alive. The desert is where things fall apart and where things may come together for us in an unanticipated way.”

The ancient practice of pilgrimage has become increasingly popular in recent decades, in both traditional and new forms. Pilgrimage also provides fertile space for teaching. Especially with this latter development in mind, Pilgrimage as Spiritual Practice brings together original essays that offer useful resources for teachers and guides who lead groups in both academic and non-academic settings. The central aim of this volume is to provide a curated handbook of resources to aid the study and practice of pilgrimage for pilgrimage leaders and pilgrims. Contributions to the volume were created based on the premise that pilgrimage is a spiritual practice and that those who engage in pilgrimage do so as whole persons and thus will be challenged physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. The volume has two parts with six chapters each. The first part examines methods, key texts, and concepts. These chapters provide various entry points into the pilgrimage phenomenon: philosophy, theology, anthropology, psychology, medieval literature, art history. Though these chapters will focus on method and concept, they will make use of examples taken from concrete experience. The second part of the volume addresses specific practices, contexts, and phenomena: the Camino de Santiago, pilgrimage in Islam and Christianity, pilgrimage in India, pilgrimage in East Asia (Shikoku), pilgrimage in the wilderness, and urban pilgrimage.

An excursion into the ancient spiritual practice of pilgrimage from the perspective of loss and bereavement. Jill Baker encourages others to step into the pilgrim spirit and discover more about the big, wild God who constantly calls us to follow.

This book uses the metaphor of walking to gain insight into the spiritual life. Walking is the most basic movement of the human body. For many people, walking carries no value on its own except to transit between two points. From the spiritual perspective, we can derive many benefits through the act of walking. As a spiritual discipline, walking not only has health benefits but generates different states of well-being that are good for the human soul and spirit. Walking gives us pleasure, joy, happiness, and serenity. Metaphorically speaking, walking gives us a sense that we are on a journey with God. It also helps us to know the importance of engaging our physical bodies in our spirituality. It keeps us attuned to the present moment, cultivates in us a sense of wonder in the natural world, creates an inner space in our cluttered lives, highlights the need for solitude and silence, and gives us the freedom of simplicity that the soul enjoys.