The Way Is Made by Walking: A Pilgrimage Along the Camino de Santiago

Sometime about 2005, Arthur Paul Boers went on a hike. Not just any hike, but the 500-mile-long Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. Already an experienced hiker, he made the journey in 31 days. And he wrote about his experience.But he didn’t simply write a travel diary of what he saw and where he stayed. Instead, “The Way is Made by Walking: A Pilgrimage Along the Camino de Santiago” is about the experience of pilgrimage itself, what it means and signifies, and what the idea of pilgrimage suggests for the Christian life. It isn’t a primer on pilgrimage, or even a step-by-step guide to the Camino de Santiago. This is the Christian life as a pilgrimage.Boers explains why he was drawn to pilgrimage, its Christian roots, and its lessons for spirituality. Like the pack he carried on his back, a pilgrimage is always about the need to simplify, carrying with us only what’s vital and necessary. (He became such a stickler on this point that he tore out sections of the book he read along the way as soon as he finished reading them. The book was Don Quixote.)He goes on to consider the challenges of faithful pilgrimage, the opportunities for hospitality, what happens even to secular seekers along the way, and how to put pilgrimage into daily practice. And he sees walking as a spiritual practice.Just so you know, Boers also wrote about the blisters on his feet, the good and bad food, and some nice places to sleep along with those he’d rather forget about. And four appendices discuss recovering and reclaiming Christian pilgrimage, planning a pilgrimage, some well-known pilgrimage destinations, and resources specific to the Camino itself.The book, first published in 2007, so impressed the late Eugene Peterson that he wrote the foreword.Boers is an ordained minister and Benedictine oblate, and he served for many years as a pastor in rural, urban, and church-planting settings. He served for six years he held the R.J. Bernardo Family Chair of Leadership at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, Canada, and taught pastoral theology at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana. He’s also published “Our Work, God’s World;” “Living into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distraction;” and “Servants and Fools: A Biblical Theology of Leadership.” He received his D. Min, degree with distinction from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he also holds degrees in pastoral counseling and peace studies.You don’t have to travel to Spain and walk the Camino de Santiago to appreciate “The Way is Made by Walking.” You can practice the idea of pilgrimage in your own neighborhood or town. And while the 500-mile Camino might be too challenging, I’m thinking about the 120-mile path from Winchester to Canterbury.

Author Arthur Paul Boers states, "Pilgrimages are connected to events, stories and narratives of places or people where God has been active or encountered...Christian pilgrimage then, has to do with going to particular locations to situate oneself within God's story among us, so that we too might be touched - even transformed or converted - by salvation history, God's metanarrative. Seeing and directly engaging such sites is a way of appropriating the story for oneself."This book is not a manual for walking the Camino de Santiago. It is instead an exploration of how pilgrimage can lead oneself back home, into a deeper knowing of self, of God and how to relate to the wider world.In this book the author takes us on a journey along the Camino de Santiago and invites us to travel with him by engaging us in reflection on the lessons that he learned along the way.The pace of the book is thoughtful and reflective. Like the ambling that Boers expounds upon, the spiritual lessons are slow to unfold within the text. Whether or not you have ever considered the spiritual discipline of pilgrimage this book has much to teach, not just when it comes to considering whether to embark on your own pilgrimage, but in considering how you walk with God and others day by day.I learned much through the author's thoughtful reflection and I also, surprisingly, resisted much. Though I could relate both to Boers' Mennonite roots and his Benedictine values, although I've lived cross culturally in Europe for years and place a high value on spiritual disciplines, and though I myself find that I often meet God in deeply personal ways through "ambling", I nevertheless resisted some of the applications that Boers made.This resistance also teaches me and it leads me to conclude that as Rilke said, "everything must be lived." If "the way is made by walking" then perhaps a pilgrimage is in order.

I liked this book a lot. I only recently became aware of the Camino de Santiago, so I did some reading. People have been walking this route for 1200 years. In our time, for most people, it’s just a walk to do, like the Appalachian Trail. Most of the books about “The Way” are about how to pack your backpack, good places to stay, and other pretty essential information. I like that the author here emphasizes the pilgrimage aspect of the walk. It still means something to many walkers who are Christian, and this Pilgrimage (a spiritual walk with a goal at the end) is fuelled by their faith. So Boers gives useful information, as well as philosophy and some Bible references.I felt as if I walked along with him. Too old to go on such a long walk now, but Boers took me along on a wonderful pilgrimage.

I purchased this book as someone who would like to walk the Camino de Santiago some day. The author is very spiritual, and shares my Religious beliefs. He was clearly transformed by the experience. It had some interesting anecdotes and flashes of insight. On the whole, I would have preferred a travelogue, not a how-to about pilgrimages. I'm sure that Mr. Boers had some interesting stories and experiences, but largely these were not communicated in the actual book. It would be as if Bill Bryson wrote A Walk in the Woods but only talked about the history of the trail and not the adventures with his friend. I wanted more from this book. That being said, it wasn't unreadable, and it kept my attention. I just wish that the author had been more interested in the temporal nature of the Way as well as the spiritual.

Was great to read a book by a Canadian, and from a non catholic. I enjoyed his experiences and insights he gained on life. I used many quotes from the book in public speaking.Great spiritual yarn.I want to be him when I grow up.

A very spiritual book. Really enjoyed reading the book.

great service and goods

Awesome book. Very helpful prior to walking El Camino.

I had heard Professor Boers speak, and bought to book to learn more about his journey. It's been some time since I read the book, but I found it more sad than inspiring. Suffering may have been the way of pilgrims historically, but needless suffering doesn't call me closer to God. The author's walking on a bloody foot, rather than taking time out to heal fully, made me want to write him and encourage him to be kinder to himself. All that said, the details of the pilgrimage route, and stories of other pilgrims were interesting.