Sacred Pilgrim, Secular Pilgrim: A Roman Journey - Paperback

by Colby Dickinson (Author)

This book is part travelogue, part philosophical reflection, part historical overview, and part autobiography. Dickinson narrates his journeys to various Roman churches alongside their curious and often contradictory histories, guided by the overarching question: what does it mean to be a pilgrim, especially in the secular, pluralistic age in which we live? For him, pilgrimage takes place whenever he allows himself to be truly attentive to a specific geographical place. He listens in ways he normally does not and is transformed by measures he struggles to fathom. By engaging the practice of pilgrimage, Dickinson finds that there is no other way to connect, confront, and confess himself than by merging his physical-geographical-material nature with the theoretical and spiritual. Pilgrimage in this book is a ceaseless dialogue with everything that surrounds us, the places, people, and presences in which one immerses oneself. It is a pilgrimage out of, and even deep back into, one's own person.

Author Biography

Colby Dickinson is Professor of Theology at Loyola University Chicago. His research focuses on the intersections between contemporary continental philosophy and theology, exploring modern varieties of political theology and philosophy of religion. He is the author of Haunted Words, Haunted Selves: Listening to the Otherness Within Western Thought, Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer Series: A Critical Introduction and Guide, Theological Poverty in Continental Philosophy: After Christian Theology, and Words Fail: Theology, Poetry, and the Challenge of Representation.