Book Review: The Traveler’s Path
The Traveler’s Path: Finding Spiritual Growth and Inspiration through Travel
by Douglas J. Brouwer
Reformed Journal Books, 2025
210 pages
on Goodreads
Reviewed by Steve Lytch | Lancaster, PA
A common exchange between pilgrims who meet on the Camino is “Why are you doing this?” The Traveler’s Path is an attempt to address that question not just as it applies to pilgrimage but to the whole scope of human movement.
Douglas J. Brouwer, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), attributes much of that restlessness to a yearning for something we can’t quite define. The ethicist Stanley Hauerwas, echoing Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, encourages us to see life as a “worthy adventure,” a journey that gives us meaning and purpose. Brouwer applies that notion of the worthy adventure to various forms of travel, including pilgrimage, as occasions for transformation.
At the American Pilgrims on the Camino Annual Open House in December 2024, Rick Steves spoke to us about how the responsible traveler goes to a place expecting to be changed by listening and seeking to understand. Fans of Steves will resonate with The Traveler’s Path.
Drawing on his own extensive travels, Brouwer helps us see the complexities of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where competing stories of national sovereignty roil among the sacred sites. He reflects on the mission trips he has led, pondering who benefits the most: the elderly couple in Appalachia whose house his youth group helped repair, or the children of privilege who were exposed to another way of life? Marveling at the natural beauty and diversity of cultures in Morocco, he is aware of the aftereffects of colonialism and the mixed blessings of the modern tourist industry. In his quest to reconnect with his family origins while working in the Netherlands, he learns that one really can’t return to the home of one’s ancestors because both the descendant and the culture have changed. And he acknowledges that not all travel transforms in a positive way. The transport of enslaved Africans to America or the forced displacement of indigenous people can hardly be justified as worthy adventures. Brouwer’s experience as a prison chaplain gives him some appreciation for those deprived of their freedom to travel. The chapter on his encounter in Berlin with Stolpersteiner, the stones embedded in the pavement to mark the homes where Jews lived before being taken to Nazi concentration camps, is sobering.
Some say that the Camino is a metaphor for life. If that’s true, then this book helps us expand the metaphor. Brouwer ends by reflecting on how travel can prepare us for the ultimate worthy journey. “Death, instead of something to be feared or avoided, could be something to get ready for, to anticipate, as I have for so many of the adventures of my life.” The Traveler’s Path is a worthy read that will prime you for your next adventure, wherever it happens to be.
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