The Unknown Pilgrim

Rene Gothoni is Professor in Comparative Religion at the University of Helsinki in Finland. He is also a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, UK, a Life Member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, and the president of the Finnish Society of the Friends of Mount Athos. He is the author of several scholarly books and articles. However, in this book he lays aside his scholar's hat, and writes an intensely personal diary of a week spent with a hermit monk, a wise spiritual father, on the Holy Mountain Athos, the ancient center of Orthodox Christian monasticism in Greece. This is not a travelogue of "my summer vacation" (though the reader will gain some acquaintance with this unique and amazing place, a place the author has visited many times over many years. Primarily, it is about an inward spiritual journey, into the mystical life of Christ as understood and experienced by Orthodox Christians. A pilgrimage is a manifestation of an inner journey, often referred to as an allegory of the soul's journey to God. On this journey the pilgrim perceives the gap between what he should be and what he really is. As a scholar of religion, the author knew about pilgrimages "by the book" but yearned for something more. This book tells the story of his jouney as an unknown pilgrim to an unknown place, a pilgrimage that changed his life. Originally published in Finnish in 2000, now translated into English by the author. A handsome volume with highly-readable print.