Jerusalem Bound. Rodney Aist

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СКАЧАТЬ Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society

      NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers

      Jerusalem Bound

      How to be a Pilgrim in the Holy Land

      Copyright © 2020 Rodney Aist. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

      Cascade Books

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

      Eugene, OR 97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      paperback isbn: 978-1-7252-5526-5

      hardcover isbn: 978-1-7252-5527-2

      ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-5528-9

      Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

      Names: Aist, Rodney, author.

      Title: Jerusalem bound : how to be a pilgrim in the Holy Land / by Rodney Aist.

      Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020 | Includes bibliographical references.

      Identifiers: isbn 978-1-7252-5526-5 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-7252-5527-2 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-7252-5528-9 (ebook)

      Subjects: LCSH: Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages—Israel—Guidebooks | Christian shrines—Israel | Israel—Description and travel | Christian pilgrims and pilgrimage | Sacred space

      Classification: ds107.4 a47 2020 (print) | ds107.4 (ebook)

      Manufactured in the U.S.A. 08/27/20

      1

      Introduction

      “Many visitors leave Palestine disappointed, but I am sure the fault is not in Palestine.

      The traveler has not known how to make the trip or has been inwardly unfitted to make it.”

—Henry Emerson Fosdick, A Pilgrimage to Palestine, 1927.1

      Holy Land pilgrimage is a journey from the manger to the cross. Full of movements, stations, and mini-journeys, it enables pilgrims to reenact the story of Jesus’ life. From the empty tomb, the resurrection ripples from Jerusalem to the ends of the world, and pilgrims return home replicating the gospel. The Holy Land experience is an investigation of scripture, an encounter with Christ on native soil, a return to the roots of the Christian faith. Holy Land travelers can either assume or ignore a pilgrim identity, but what does it mean to be a pilgrim in the first place? What are the biblical images, historical expressions, and contemporary experiences of pilgrimage, and how can they enhance the Holy Land journey? Jerusalem Bound explores the motives, practices, and challenges of Holy Land pilgrimage. Applying historical sources and present-day perspectives, How to be a Pilgrim in the Holy Land offers practical ideas and spiritual insights from pre-trip planning to post-trip reflections. Responding to Fosdick’s lament that travelers come and go without knowing how to make the trip, Jerusalem Bound lays the ground for a successful journey.

      A Unique Resource for Holy Land Travel

      Encouraging participants to tackle the challenge for themselves, a rope course instructor refrains from telling climbers exactly what to do. It is up to the individual to test possibilities, to make decisions, and to execute the required maneuvers. Experience is more meaningful when it reflects our own decisions. Jerusalem Bound takes a similar approach. Avoiding checklists and step-by-step instructions, the book suggests possibilities without telling pilgrims where to put their feet. Setting the course for Jerusalem pilgrims, the book surveys past and present traditions, challenging Holy Land pilgrims to think beyond their theological baselines, to engage in creative practices, and to focus upon the Other as much as themselves. By recognizing the normative dynamics of the Holy Land experience, such as pilgrim fatigue, the book reassures travelers who wonder whether their journey has gone astray. By espousing a spirituality that emphasizes God’s presence in the actuality of lived experience, the book encourages pilgrims to derive meaning in both the highs and lows of Holy Land travel.

      Jerusalem Bound is unique among Holy Land resources. While traditional travel books and archaeological guides detail the sites, providing travel tips from opening hours to coffee shops, Jerusalem Bound equips Christian travelers with a reflective apparatus rooted in biblical, historical, and contemporary images of the pilgrim life. The book discusses a number of questions that are seldom, if ever, addressed. How should we think about the holy sites, and what language and concepts can we use to describe them? What are the common practices, past and present, of Holy Land pilgrims, and what is the role of religious souvenirs? What are the particular challenges of Jerusalem travel, and how should pilgrims respond? Attentive to the transformational nature of pilgrimage, Jerusalem Bound is ultimately interested in Christian formation and the aftermath of the Holy Land journey.

      About the Author

The approach of Jerusalem Bound reflects my background as a Jerusalem scholar, pilgrim practitioner, and Protestant minister. As a young clergy, I went on a one-year, around-the-world pilgrimage, visiting Christian communities and historical sites in twenty countries, ending with a forty-day hermitage experience in the Ozark Mountains. I spoke about place and journey with Christians around the world and produced a memoir of my pilgrim travels.2 I have walked over seven hundred miles of the Camino de Santiago, reflecting upon the pilgrim life and listening to the stories of fellow travelers.

Personal experience has led to scholarly pursuits. While obtaining a masters degree in Celtic Christianity, a subject rich in themes of place and journey, my scholarship has focused on Jerusalem pilgrimage before the Crusades.3 I have been a research fellow at the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, which, in turn, led me to St. George’s College, Jerusalem, where, as course director, I guided short-term pilgrim courses for laity and clergy from around the world. Along with an expertise in the holy sites, I have a specialty in short-term Christian community. I am familiar with the dynamics of group travel and strategies for enhancing the pilgrim experience. I know, firsthand, that Jerusalem pilgrimage is ultimately an exercise in Christian formation—that empirical knowledge of the biblical landscapes, an intimate understanding of scripture, and the embodied experience of religious travel transform the Jerusalem pilgrim in life-changing ways.

      Like anyone who has spent time in the region, I have friends and colleagues from various religious and ethnic backgrounds. Navigating Israel–Palestine is difficult, especially since the centrifugal forces of the conflict resist a common, middle ground. Even so, Jerusalem Bound seeks the radical center. Pilgrims are instruments of reconciliation, raising attention to injustices, praying for peace, and embodying Christ’s vision of the kingdom of God. The words, actions, thoughts, and prayers of Christians should not divide people; instead, they should beckon people to the table. That does not mean that we lack positions: the book supports the local, Palestinian church and the end of the military occupation. Incorporating a wide range of voices, the views of Jerusalem Bound are based upon my on-the-ground experience and ultimately upon the perspectives of local Christians.

      My interest in pilgrimage came about in a curious way. Upon finishing a three-year pastorate in northern Arkansas, I received a calling to go on pilgrimage. Having lived abroad thrice in my twenties and interested in furthering my global experience, I was granted “permission” СКАЧАТЬ