Taking My God For a Walk by Tony Collins

Taking My God For a Walk Reviews

• 
  Create With Joy

  What would compel a 21st century man on the verge of retirement pack only his bare essentials into a backpack – leave the comforts and familiarity of his daily routine behind – and embark on an arduous, 490-mile pilgrimage in a foreign land?
  
  That’s the adventure that awaits us in Taking My God For A Walk by Tony Collins – a fascinating sojourn that will satisfy both spiritual seekers and armchair travelers alike!
  
  In Taking My God For A Walk, we accompany the author along the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James – a path of devotion that European pilgrims have traveled for over a thousand years.
  
  Tony soon discovers that more adventures await him than he ever could have imagined on his three-tiered journey!
  
  Few of us will have the chance to take this type of pilgrimage during our lifetimes – but through this book, we have the rare opportunity to ponder and reflect upon the sights and insights that so deeply change the sojourner on his spiritual path.
  
  This review is an excerpt from the original review that is published on my blog. To read my review in its entirety, please visit
  Create With Joy.
  
  Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own, based on my assessment of this book.
  
• 
  S.C. Skillman

  This is an amazing book, profound, moving, poignant, and full of honest, revealing details in the life of the author. As he described his journey, I felt as if I was walking alongside him; I could feel the sweat, the physical duress, and the difficulty, along with the joy and relief of a welcoming "Albergue" (hostel) with its hot showers, laundry facilities and cold beer, at every stop! I was fascinated too by the information he gives us about Spain, about the abandoned villages, the areas of great beauty and the areas of dereliction. One of the things that most appealed to me in the book was the natural way in which walkers on this pilgrimage befriend, separate from, or join up with one another at different points along the route, without any prior arrangement, and with no obligation to meet again or otherwise. It all seems an organic part of the pilgrimage, as if taking part in its helps the pilgrims rethink life's journey too. My one slight disappointment was that I found the arrival at Santiago de Compostela rather an anticlimax. And yet perhaps that is the nature of pilgrimage. The true value of it lies in the journey, not in the arriving.
• 
  Paul Trembling

  I've done a bit of pilgrimaging (if that's a word?) myself, but the Camino - 490 mile from France and across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela - is way beyond me in my state of health and fitness. So I was fascinated to read this account of a journey along the Camino from someone who understands pilgrimage as being both a physical and a spiritual journey.
  
  Collins has an easy, accessible style of writing that put me right alongside him as he slogged up and down mountains, tramped through torrential rain and under blazing sun, gazed on spectacular views and ancient buildings. He has and shares a deep sense of the land he walks through: delving into it's long and often bloody history to bring up some intriguing nuggets of the past but also very aware of the present day and how things are changing. Along the way he meets and talks with some interesting characters, both locals and fellow pilgrims, whose stories showed me something of the vast range of human experience that comes together in pilgrimage.
  
  And, not the least part of the experience, he also shares his appreciation for some of the food and drink he savored along the way!
  
  However, that is just the outer journey. Pilgrimage is also an inner journey: and sometimes that is the hardest part of it. As he says in an especially memorable phrase 'I had not expected my soul to be pinned out for examination like a flayed frog.' He shares that spiritual part of the Camino honestly and openly, and in doing so gives a real insight into what pilgrimage is, and what it does to those who venture out onto that road.
  
  My own definition of pilgrimage, developed from my own much shorter journeys, was 'Walking in the context of God'. 'Taking My God For A Walk' seems to me to express much the same idea. It confirmed for me that, although I may never walk the Camino myself, we are still on the same path.
  
  Thank you, Tony.
• 
  Joan

  Why would someone take a month out of a busy and productive life and walk 490 miles on a sometimes treacherous path in all kinds of weather?
  
  Collins decided to make such a pilgrimage, the route of the Camino, the Way of St. James, a path for pilgrims for over a thousand years. He had found his spiritual life suffered from distraction. A suggestion by a friend seized his imagination and his journey was born.
  
  Collins shares his halting steps at changing his thinking, of getting away from a schedule and the compulsion of productivity. He writes about the people he met, the conditions at night, his equipment, the history of the places, the shrines. He highlights the times of solitude and the ones of camaraderie. He reveals his own introspection and what he learned on the journey.
  
  “One of the joys of the Camino, I think, is to meet so many folk who have refused to sit down by the waters and weep – or, having wept, have climbed to their feet once more. I heard some distressing stories along the Way. But I didn't meet any victims.” (202)
  
  We live in a noisy world. Sometimes, Collins writes, we use that noise as a drug. It keeps us from having to think, to consider our place in the world. Going on this pilgrimage taught him much about his life. “I have eschewed peace and contemplation,” he writes. (157) Unlike a vacation, this journey forced him to evaluate his life, to be a solitary individual in a world where solitude is rare.
  
  I recommend this book to those interested in pilgrimage. You'll find out why some have done pilgrimages historically and why people still do them today. You'll traverse the miles with Collins and meet other pilgrims. You'll also learn quite a bit about Collins himself, both the past and present.
  
  I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
• 
  Rosalie Weller

  What a delight! Tony balances spiritual challenges, historical facts and geographical insight superbly. His book is interesting as well as humourous in places. His personal insights reveal a true pilgrim. This book charts an interesting journey
• 
  James

  What happens when a Christian publisher with charismatic, evangelical, Anglican roots embarks on a Catholic pilgrimage? Tony Collins (of Monarch Books and Lion Hudson) took a month and two days to walk from St. Jean Pied-de-Port to the west coast of Spain, the city of Santiago de Compostela.  The Camino de Santiago is four-hundred-and-ninety mile journey across the hills of Northern Spain. In
  Taking My God for a Walk, Collins recounts the journey—sharing his reflections on pilgrimage and the people and places he met along the way.
  
  The book provides a chronology of Collins's pilgrimage, each chapter, a journal entry of a days or two's walk, recounting the sights, sensations and encounters. He relays the hardness of the path, his conversations with fellow pilgrims and the way made by walking. This is a travelogue describing Collins three-fold journey: a journey of cultural discovery of the sights, tastes and culture of Northern Spain, a historic journey into the politics and demographics of the region, and spiritual journey undertook to seek 'sources of reverence'(17-18). He meets God on the pilgrim road and is profoundly impacted by this journey.
  
  I was interested in this book because the pastor of the church I am attending, recently came back from the Camino and came back with fascinating stories about her journey (which made their way into many sermon illustrations). Collins walked the same path. He weaves his theological musings with descriptions of towns and countryside, and particular interest in the friends forged along the way. 
  
  I enjoyed reading about Collins reflections on life and faith, his embarrassment (early on) of the impropriety of having a traveling companion called his 'girlfriend,' the ways he braved boredom and bed bugs as he sought out the gifts of the journey. I enjoyed the book without necessarily finding it a compelling read. I found I could only read it in fits and starts. I don't think this Collins fault. He is a good writer, witty, observant,insightful. But pilgrimage unfolds circumspectly. He walks the way of St. James and meets God in the walking and at the culmination of his journey. I give this book three and a half stars.
  
  Note: I received this book from Kregel Publications in exchange for my honest review. Monarch Books is an imprint of Lion Hudson and is distributed by Kregel in the United States.
• 
  Michelle

  `Taking My God For A Walk` is a memoir about a walk Tony Collins took from the French border to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. This book is written by author Tony Collins.
  
  I found this book hard to get interested in because there were so many new-to-me words. By the title of the book, I thought it would be a book on the how-to of prayer-walking. It is actually a month long story of a 490-mile pilgrimage in all types of weather, meeting all types of people, including one man without shoes who rubbed vaseline on his sore, bare feet.
  
  Disclaimer: "I was provided a free copy of this book. All opinions are my own."
• 
  Carley Jane

  Made me want to go for a looong walk!
  Enjoyed this book immensely.