Biblical scholar and seasoned pilgrimage guide Stephen J. Binz offers an up-to-date handbook for experiencing the sites of the Holy Land as a disciple of Jesus. Whether contemplating future travel, on the road of pilgrimage, savoring memories of a past trip, or journeying in mind and heart from an armchair, readers will explore the nature of pilgrimage and encounter the places of the Holy Land from a biblical, historical, meditative, and prayerful perspective. This guide will enable Christians to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, confident that their pilgrimage will be both an educational journey and a transforming spiritual experience. Full-color illustrations throughout!

A pilgrim spirituality for Holy Land travel, Jerusalem Bound resources the Christian traveler with biblical, historical, and contemporary images of the pilgrim life. Integrating historical sources, on-the-ground experience, and the voices of global pilgrims, Jerusalem Bound presents a fresh approach to pilgrimage, explores pilgrim identity and the Holy Land experience, offers ideas for Holy Land travel, and encourages pilgrims to focus upon the Other as much as themselves. Unique among Holy Land resources, Jerusalem Bound discusses material that is seldom addressed on a Holy Land journey: the motives of Holy Land pilgrims, the history of the Christian Holy Land, understanding the holy sites, pilgrim practices, material objects, and the challenges of Holy Land pilgrimage. Emphasizing the incarnational nature of lived experience, the book encourages pilgrims to derive meaning in both the highs and lows of religious travel. Attentive to the transformational nature of pilgrimage, Jerusalem Bound is ultimately interested in Christian formation and the aftermath of the Holy Land journey.

Since the 1950s, millions of American Christians have traveled to the Holy Land to visit places in Israel and the Palestinian territories associated with JesusOCOs life and death. Why do these pilgrims choose to journey halfway around the world? How do they react to what they encounter, and how do they understand the trip upon return? This book places the answers to these questions into the context of broad historical trends, analyzing how the growth of mass-market evangelical and Catholic pilgrimage relates to changes in American Christian theology and culture over the last sixty years, including shifts in Jewish-Christian relations, the growth of small group spirituality, and the development of a Christian leisure industry. Drawing on five years of research with pilgrims before, during and after their trips, a Walking Where Jesus Walked aoffers a lived religion approach that explores the tripOCOs hybrid nature for pilgrims themselves: both ordinaryOCotied to their everyday role as the familyOCOs ritual specialists, and extraordinaryOCosince they leave home in a dramatic way, often for the first time. Their experiences illuminate key tensions in contemporary US Christianity between material evidence and transcendent divinity, commoditization and religious authority, domestic relationships and global experience. Hillary Kaell crafts the first in-depth study of the cultural and religious significance of American Holy Land pilgrimage after 1948. The result sheds light on how Christian pilgrims, especially women, make sense of their experience in Israel-Palestine, offering an important complement to top-down approaches in studies of Christian Zionism and foreign policy."

What better way is there to become configured to Christ than by following in His footsteps? A pilgrimage to the Holy Land allows one to follow, quite literally, in Our Lord’s footsteps, to discover His homeland and the cultural, linguistic, historical, and topographical landscapes that reveal so much about Jesus Christ. Come and See: A Catholic Guide to the Holy Land accompanies pilgrims through holy sites in Galilee, the Dead Sea, and Jerusalem. Contemplate the mysteries of Our Lord’s earthly life and ministry with appropriate biblical texts and the testimonies of both Roman historians and early Christian witnesses and writers. This uniquely Catholic travel guide features: Vibrant, full-color pictures Almost every page features photographs of the holy sites, as well as sacred art and even diagrams for historical context. Scripture on Site See the place the Lord’s Ascension actually occurred while reading about it in the Book of Acts. Experience the Jordan River while contemplating Christ’s baptism in that very place. Bring both the sites and the Scriptures to life by reading the Scripture on Site suggestions. Reflection sections with specific reflections for seminarians Not only is this guide informative, it is devotional. The reflection sections are perfect journaling prompts, group discussion questions, or simply guides for quiet reflection. Seminarians particularly will benefit from questions focused on their formation and future priestly ministry. Special durable cover and compact travel size This is one guide that can stand up to the rigors of travel! The cover is tear-resistant and the size is perfect for taking along on day trips to holy sites. Fr. Charles Samson’s Come and See will be a welcome companion for all who journey to the Holy Land to better know and love Christ.

"Every man who undertakes the journey to the Our Lord's Sepulcher needs three sacks: a sack of patience, a sack of silver, and a sack of faith."—Symon Semeonis, an Irish medieval pilgrim As medieval pilgrims made their way to the places where Jesus Christ lived and suffered, they experienced, among other things: holy sites, the majesty of the Egyptian pyramids (often referred to as the "Pharaoh's granaries"), dips in the Dead Sea, unfamiliar desert landscapes, the perils of traveling along the Nile, the customs of their Muslim hosts, Barbary pirates, lice, inconsiderate traveling companions, and a variety of difficulties, both great and small. In this richly detailed study, Nicole Chareyron draws on more than one hundred firsthand accounts to consider the journeys and worldviews of medieval pilgrims. Her work brings the reader into vivid, intimate contact with the pilgrims' thoughts and emotions as they made the frequently difficult pilgrimage to the Holy Land and back home again. Unlike the knights, princes, and soldiers of the Crusades, who traveled to the Holy Land for the purpose of reclaiming it for Christendom, these subsequent pilgrims of various nationalities, professions, and social classes were motivated by both religious piety and personal curiosity. The travelers not only wrote journals and memoirs for themselves but also to convey to others the majesty and strangeness of distant lands. In their accounts, the pilgrims relate their sense of astonishment, pity, admiration, and disappointment with humor and a touching sincerity and honesty. These writings also reveal the complex interactions between Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Holy Land. Throughout their journey, pilgrims confronted occasionally hostile Muslim administrators (who controlled access to many holy sites), Bedouin tribes, Jews, and Turks. Chareyron considers the pilgrims' conflicted, frequently simplistic, views of their Muslim hosts and their social and religious practices.