Sacred Roads: Adventures from the Pilgrimage Trail [Hardcover]

Nicholas Shrady (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1999

How many of us have longed to travel the same roads that Jesus traveled? To walk in the footsteps of the Buddha? In Sacred Roads, Nicholas Shrady journeys to some of the most holy destinations in the world, and in his recollections we can see the beginnings of our own spiritual voyage.

From Medjugorje, Bosnia, where pilgrims flock to the miraculous site of the Virgin Mary's appearance, to Konya, Turkey, where, since 1271, people have traveled to pay their respects at the tomb of the Sufi mystic Rumi, Shrady reveals the wonders of pilgrimage. What would it be like to walk the five hundred miles of venerated ground to Santiago de Compostela, through the countryside and rugged mountains of Spain, to the burial site of St. James? Or, how would it be to climb to the source of the Ganges, high in the Himalaya, and later drift down the sacred river by rowboat to the teeming holy city of Varanasi, where the dead are cremated alongside the river's banks? With vivid detail, incisive objectivity, and even unexpected humor, Nicholas Shrady discovers the paradoxes and the hidden truths of religion, and he shares with us the sublime epiphanies and the absurd dilemmas that await a modern-day pilgrim.

Sacred Roads sends a clear message: If a pilgrimage beckons--walk on! The adventures and insights that await are certain to be worth the effort, and the journey itself will be life-changing. The sacred roads of the world offer an opportunity to reflect and rejoice--and it is in these moments that the jewels of the pilgrim's trail are uncovered: ". . . never had I previously felt so near to the Absolute as when I was bound to a sacred path--not in any church, confessional, or moment of solitary prayer." For, as any pilgrim knows, the real pilgrimage brings us to the true destination: our own sacred road.

"The pilgrim's progress is both an interior journey, a spiritual exercise, and a physical journey toward an actual site imbued with a divine character. The condition of the pilgrim, in fact, comes remarkably close to that of the hero. By abandoning familiar, worldly surroundings, submitting [oneself] to physical hardship and sometimes considerable danger, and paying homage or doing penance at a holy site, pilgrims, like heroes, know that they will return from their odyssey in some way renewed, or at least inwardly changed."

-- from Sacred Roads

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nicholas Shrady's Sacred Roads: Adventures from the Pilgrimage Trail is the best kind of personal essay. Shrady's subject is determined by his own experience, but his perception of that experience always pays homage to the many men and women who have gone before him--and it paves the way for those who will follow. That particular strength is exceptionally well suited to a book about pilgrimage, because a pilgrim's movements are always at least as socially conditioned as they are individually elected. The driving question of Sacred Roads is this: how does the act of walking a pilgrim's path lead to spiritual insight? This Mississippi-River-size question is fed by smaller tributaries: Do danger and adventure make the rewards of pilgrimage greater? How should a pilgrim cope with obstacles in his or her path? Should obstacles be interpreted as providential or accidental? What do you do when a so-called holy man threatens your life?

A skeptical Catholic, Shrady is blessed with faith and doubt in equal measure, which imbues his stories of pilgrimages to Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu holy places with authentic suspense. To extract from this book a succinct lesson is impossible; to try would be an injustice. Suffice it to say that Shrady is an ideal companion--simultaneously erudite, easygoing, intense, and blissfully ignorant. And best of all, he's a tenacious guardian of the solitude he finds on the pilgrimage trail, so as to be more fully present to his fellow pilgrims and readers:

I came to regard the conventional world from which I was at least temporarily removed as chaotic and aimless; the world of pilgrimage, by contrast, was, despite often precarious conditions, marked by a purity of focus. If I felt somehow blessed, it was because the pilgrimage brought me closest to Man's first condition.

--Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly

A born-and-raised Catholic whose faith "was, and remains, full of profound doubts," American travel writer Shrady describes the events of his sometimes harrowing journeys to six of the world's best-known religious destinations: the Catholic shrine to Mary at Medjugorje, Bosnia; the Hindu holy river Ganges; Buddhist sites in India and Nepal; the 500-mile medieval pilgrimage path to the tomb of St. Peter in Santiago de Compostela, Spain; the Jewish and Islamic holy sites of Jerusalem; and the Turkish tomb of the Sufi mystic Rumi. Taken together, the trips bring Shrady to conclude: "The notion that God, or the Absolute, can be approached while journeying, I discovered, is all but universal." Shrady unites incisive, often humorous writing (the wall of his "soggy" Medjugorje boarding-house room "was decorated with a poster of the Virgin, and another with an image of Sylvester StalloneAa source of inspiration, no doubt") with thoughts on the religious faiths he seeks to understand ("One may choose to become a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, or a shamanist, but one cannot become a Hindu.... That is why Hindus do not go about proselytizing"). Along the way, the author describes adventures that include being left out in the cold by Catholic priests; traveling the Ganges in a "decrepit vessel of dubious seaworthiness"; being held hostage by bandits in India; and, finally, witnessing "a clandestine Sema ceremony" of Sufi dervishes whirling in ecstatic prayer. In this sincere narrative, Shrady wonderfully combines travelogues with spiritual ruminations. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper San Francisco; 1st edition (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060671122
• ISBN-13: 978-0060671129
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,273,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding, thought-provoking book!, July 6, 1999

By 

Christina C. Shankar "Chris NY" (Chestnut Ridge, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacred Roads: Adventures from the Pilgrimage Trail (Hardcover)

I read this book as someone who has struggled with Christianity for many years and have finally and recently come to terms with it in the Orthodox Church. I can relate quite personally to Mr. Shrady's struggles with his faith, and read with great interest his impressions of Medjugorje: what makes this place sacred - the "visions" of the Blessed Virgin or just that the place evokes such faithfulness?

I was saddened to read that in the land of Christianity's birth, its followers are leaving, and soon there will be none left. Mr. Shrady writes honestly but sensitively about why this is so and this, I think, is a major contribution of this book. More authors, more Christians should become aware of this deeply troubling situation.

Mr. Shrady has the blessing of an open mind, and describes all he sees with genuine respect. Practices that are alien to him, temples, all of it are beautifully and I am sure, accurately, described. I have also been booted unceremoniously from a few Hindu temples in India, so I know whereof he speaks.

Only two small niggling details. First,in the section on the Hindu pilgrimage, he writes of the Brahman religion, and the Brahman caste; it should actually be Brah-MIN, Brahman being the Absolute One, or the God-head.

Second, it might have been interesting to read why Mr. Shrady made these pilgrimages - was he "shopping" for a religion? Trying to escape something or find something?

Otherwise, this is a fabulous book that I heartily recommend.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Personal Quest, April 23, 2001

By 

E. Rodin MD (Sandy, UT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacred Roads: Adventures from the Pilgrimage Trail (Hardcover)

Nicholas Shrady allows us to join him on an arduous quest for the spirit which suffuses the world's great religions. For those of us who are no longer young and cannot physically traverse the Sacred Roads he allows us to join him in spirit. The descriptions of the "Holy Places" from Medjugorje, through the rivertrip down the Ganges, the trek across Northern India into Nepal in pursuit of the Buddha's footsteps, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Palestine and eventually Anatolia are most vivid and so are the encounters with others of God's children on the road. His experiences in the "Promised Land" struck an especially responsive chord since I had undergone similar tribulations by El Al personnel, although I was spared a rectal examination. Finally I am grateful to Dr. Shrady for having introduced me to Rumi whom I had not yet counted among my acquaintances. Having said all this let me warn readers that this book is an honest account and as such may not be viewed with favor by some whose religion demands adherence to dogma rather than an inner feeling of God in all His manifold works.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars a dismissive approach to others, November 2, 2001

By 

[e-mail] (Kent,UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacred Roads: Adventures from the Pilgrimage Trail (Hardcover)

I thought the writing was good and you can't fault Nicholas Shrady's knowledge. I did learn from the book but I did not enjoy it as time and again the author's arrogance got in the way. When ever he meets another foreign traveller the sarcasm that creeps into his writing is subtle but unmistakable. This starts with Chandika - who he can't even bring himself to call by her chosen name and is later repeated with the Germans who are worried having lost a companion (though not worried enough apparently). His contempt for these people is barely disguised. Maybe they are not as holy as Mr. Shrady, but who is he to judge? At Varansi he refers to a 'horror struck audience of foreigners who didn't understand the ritual and likely never would' (p73)

I found it highly arrogant to dismiss people in this way. This behaviour unfortunately extends to his hosts who Mr. Shrady continually defeats in arguments which demonstrate his knowledge and broadmindedness while they are made to appear narrow-minded and ignorant. Maybe they are. But Mr. Shrady's self-satisfaction is embarrassing. Every prayer, every donation is described in case we don't infer it for ourselves. Amongst meditating Buddhists he decides he's not worthy (though 'I had, it's true, steeped myself in the sacred texts') and decides instead: '... Better to be overcome with humility.....than to be greedy for enlightenment' (p87). Leading me to think he doesn't a) understand the concept of enlightenment and b) know what the word 'humility' actually means.

Thee were many examples of arrogance and dismissive judgmental beahaviour in this book. However I suspect Nicholas Shrady is quite young (?) maybe when he's older he'll be more objective and less out for the reader's good opinion of him. I hope so because his writing style is basically good and I feel sorry I did not enjoy this book as much as I would have liked. I ask myself did he actually learn anything from these trips or did he set out simply to give us the benefit of his knowledge? It would be a better book if Mr Shrady had been open to learn from people rather than trying to make them learn from him.