Cite
Wright, N. T. The Way of the Lord: Christian Pilgrimage Today. New edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Co., 2014.
Jeremy
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FirstAuthor:: Wright, N. T.
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Title:: The Way of the Lord: Christian Pilgrimage Today
Year:: 2014
Citekey:: wrightWayLordChristian2014
itemType:: book
Publisher:: William. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Co.
Location:: Grand Rapids, Michigan
ISBN:: 978-1-4674-4232-9
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Abstract
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Notes
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Imported: 2025-06-25 4:08 pm
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What was there to gain by going somewhere else to do the same things? The same applied to visits made from time to time to old monasteries and, indeed, to great cathedrals such as Durham. Full of history and interest, no doubt, but one was no closer to God there than in church at home, or indeed saying one’s prayers kneeling beside one’s bed.
Pg.3
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Pilgrimage spoke of mumbo-jumbo, relics, purgatory and sundry other heresies that the Reformation had thank fully done away with. In some Protestant eyes, Catholic Christians are regularly guilty of idolatry on the one hand and works-righteousness on the other. Idolatry: they wor ship relics, statues, buildings, reserved sacraments; they even manufacture secondary relics, according (for instance) holy status to objects, such as handkerchiefs, that have come in contact with a saint’s tomb. Works-righteousness: they think that by doing certain things, going to certain places, worshipping in particularly holy sites, they will earn God’s special favour, in a way that completely undercuts the bibli cal doctrines of grace and faith.
Pg.4
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Protestantism has regularly down-played the goodness of God’s created order, on the good grounds that creation is corruptible, subject to decay, and that if you worship it you become an idolater. Catholicism at its best, however (and I include a lot more than Roman Catholicism under that heading), does not recommend the worship of creation, but the dis covery of God at work in creation. With the incarnation itself being the obvious and supreme example, and the gospel sacraments of baptism and eucharist not far behind, one can learn to discover the presence of God not only in the world, as though by a fortunate accident, but through the world: particularly through those things that speak of Jesus him self, as baptism and the eucharist so clearly do, and as the lives of holy women and men have done.
Pg.5
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What I discovered that day, which has stayed with me in the nine years since, is something which less rationalistic people have always appreciated, and less dualistic theolo gians have always embraced: that places and buildings can and do carry memory, power and hope; and that places where Jesus walked and talked, suffered, died and rose again can and do resonate with the meaning of what he did.
Pg.6
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As followers of the risen Christ, we are invited both to con template the place where he was and to recognize that there is more to following him than geography. ‘Come, see the place’ is important, but must be balanced with ‘He is not here; he is risen.’
Pg.7
- beautiful duality
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We thereby arrive at what seems to me a characteristically Pauline position of now-and-not-yet. On the one hand, certain places remain special because of their association with Jesus himself, or with one of those who, indwelt by his Spirit, has lived out the life of Christ. On the other hand, the God we know in Jesus claims the entire world, and all its nations, as his own; and wherever this God is worshipped, in an igloo in the Arctic wastes or a mud hut on the equator, in a mighty cathedral or a slum hospital, in that spot another part of God’s created space, as well as another moment of God’s created time, is quietly claimed as his own.
Pg.7
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First, going to holy places is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition of being, as one might say, a good Christian. Many saints have never left their native village. Many travellers have come back worse, not better, for the experience. Think of the Crusades. Second, pil grimage always walks on a tightrope above the abyss of commercialization. This is so whether we are in Lichfield or Jerusalem, Westminster Abbey or the West Bank. That doesn’t make it invalid; it does imply that those who organize and look after holy places, and those who visit them, need to be careful about motives. Third, it remains the case that Christianity is not, at its heart, a territorial religion. It is not about conquest of lands and empires, but about God’s justice and mercy reaching out to embrace the whole world in Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.
Pg.7
- beautiful part of Glendalough: a public park but holy place. Beautiful duality.
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First, pilgrim age to holy places has a valuable role within the Church’s teaching ministry. Unless you are entirely lacking in imagination, I think you will not return from the Holy Land (and, to a lesser extent, from other historic places of pilgrimage) without fresh insight into all sorts of aspects of the biblical story, particularly the Gospels.
Pg.7
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My hope and prayer, then, for all who go on pilgrimage, is that they may make right use of their time of journeying: to learn new things, yes; to pray new prayers, yes; but most of all to take fresh steps along the road of discipleship that leads from the earthly city to the city that is to come, whose builder and maker is God. It is in this hope that the present book now invites its readers to follow along the Way of the Lord.
Pg.8
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Second, pilgrimage to holy places is a stimulus and an invitation to prayer. Those who, like me, share the privilege of worshipping and praying regularly in an ancient holy place know well how those who come are regularly moved to pray by such a building. How much more when we visit the places where Jesus himself lived?
Pg.8
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Third, pilgrimage to holy places, though neither necessary nor sufficient for Christian living, can be for many a time of real growth and depth in discipleship. This may have some thing to do with the sheer fact of travelling away from home, looking for something we don’t yet know about.
Pg.8
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