Since the time of Abraham, pilgrims have crossed territories that are not their own. As strangers and foreigners, pilgrims are second-place people, displaced, out of place, and far from home. Pilgrims give and receive hospitality; they cross boundaries and engage the Other. Yet, despite its alien roots, pilgrimage is more commonly associated with personal spirituality, defined, at best, as a dialectic between the physical and the metaphorical. The stranger is seldom central. 

At the same time, pilgrimage has a long undercurrent of social expressions, especially in the last century, including the Great Pilgrimage of 1913 for women's suffrage, the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in 1957, and the Peace Pilgrim (1908-1981). 

What are the social applications of pilgrimage? How is the pilgrim life defined by the stranger? How does pilgrim spirituality embody Christian service, social justice, and compassionate communities?

Dr Rodney Aist shares insights into his work and writings as a pilgrim scholar, including how engaging the Other informs the DMin program in pilgrimage and spirituality.

Dr Rodney Aist is a scholar of historical theological with a specialty in Jerusalem pilgrimage texts before the Crusades. He is a Methodist clergy and pilgrim writer based in Milan, Italy.