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The Traveler's Path: Finding Spiritual Growth and Inspiration Through Travel
Travel shapes our identity, from ancient spiritual journeys to the modern movement of people across the globe. In his latest book, Douglas J. Brouwer, a pastor, scholar and lifelong traveler, invites readers to reflect on the profound, transformative power of travel in all its forms.
With over 40 years of pastoral ministry in the U.S. and Europe, Doug shares personal stories from his own life, from childhood road trips to leading mission teams, study tours, and pilgrimages. Whether serving international congregations in Zürich, Switzerland, and The Hague, Netherlands, or walking solo along the Camino paths of Spain and Portugal, his journeys reveal how travel reshapes our understanding of ourselves, others, and the divine.
The Traveler’s Path challenges readers to go beyond tourism and embrace the spiritual dimension of travel. Through his compelling stories, Doug sparks readers’ own memories of travel, or hopes for future travel, making this an ideal choice for individual reading or small-group discussion. Doug also offers readers a free, downloadable discussion guide to help spark spirited conversations.
In these chapters, Doug explores how even the most ordinary trips can teach us humility, foster empathy, and reveal deeper truths about belonging and purpose. Part memoir, part spiritual guide, and part travelogue, this book invites readers to view travel as a sacred act, where every journey becomes an opportunity for transformation. With warmth and wisdom, Doug inspires us to move beyond our comfort zones, reminding us that the road itself can lead us home.
Whether you’re planning your next adventure or reflecting on journeys past, The Traveler’s Path will inspire you to embrace the sacred potential of every step you take.
With over 40 years of pastoral ministry in the U.S. and Europe, Doug shares personal stories from his own life, from childhood road trips to leading mission teams, study tours, and pilgrimages. Whether serving international congregations in Zürich, Switzerland, and The Hague, Netherlands, or walking solo along the Camino paths of Spain and Portugal, his journeys reveal how travel reshapes our understanding of ourselves, others, and the divine.
The Traveler’s Path challenges readers to go beyond tourism and embrace the spiritual dimension of travel. Through his compelling stories, Doug sparks readers’ own memories of travel, or hopes for future travel, making this an ideal choice for individual reading or small-group discussion. Doug also offers readers a free, downloadable discussion guide to help spark spirited conversations.
In these chapters, Doug explores how even the most ordinary trips can teach us humility, foster empathy, and reveal deeper truths about belonging and purpose. Part memoir, part spiritual guide, and part travelogue, this book invites readers to view travel as a sacred act, where every journey becomes an opportunity for transformation. With warmth and wisdom, Doug inspires us to move beyond our comfort zones, reminding us that the road itself can lead us home.
Whether you’re planning your next adventure or reflecting on journeys past, The Traveler’s Path will inspire you to embrace the sacred potential of every step you take.
- GenresSpirituality
233 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 25, 2025
3 people are currently reading
2097 people want to read
About the author
Douglas J. Brouwer
9 books7 followersFor 45 years Douglas Brouwer has been a Presbyterian pastor. He served churches in Wheaton, Illinois, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Before his retirement, he served as pastor of an international congregation in Zürich, Switzerland.
Doug is also the author of eight books, including his most recent book, The Traveler's Path, a reflection on travel and the ways travel sometimes changes us.
Beginning with childhood road trips with his family, Doug has traveled throughout his life. He has led mission trips, pilgrimages, and study tours to countries around the world, and in recent years he has discovered the joys and challenges of walking solo along the various Camino paths in Spain and Portugal. He has returned twice to Europe to serve as an interim pastor to international congregations, once in Lucerne, Switzerland, and most recently in The Hague, the Netherlands.
A few of his previous books include Chasing After Wind: A Pastor’s Life, Remembering the Faith: What Christians Believe, How to Become A Multicultural Church, What Am I Supposed to Do With My Life?, Beyond I Do: What Christians Believe about Marriage, and The Truth About Who We Are: A Letter to My Grandchildren. He is a frequent contributor to publications such the Reformed Journal and Englewood Review of Books.
Doug received his undergraduate degree from Calvin University (formerly Calvin College) and his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Doug is also the author of eight books, including his most recent book, The Traveler's Path, a reflection on travel and the ways travel sometimes changes us.
Beginning with childhood road trips with his family, Doug has traveled throughout his life. He has led mission trips, pilgrimages, and study tours to countries around the world, and in recent years he has discovered the joys and challenges of walking solo along the various Camino paths in Spain and Portugal. He has returned twice to Europe to serve as an interim pastor to international congregations, once in Lucerne, Switzerland, and most recently in The Hague, the Netherlands.
A few of his previous books include Chasing After Wind: A Pastor’s Life, Remembering the Faith: What Christians Believe, How to Become A Multicultural Church, What Am I Supposed to Do With My Life?, Beyond I Do: What Christians Believe about Marriage, and The Truth About Who We Are: A Letter to My Grandchildren. He is a frequent contributor to publications such the Reformed Journal and Englewood Review of Books.
Doug received his undergraduate degree from Calvin University (formerly Calvin College) and his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 22, 2025
Travel can be exciting and inspiring. It can be informative and life-changing. I have done a bit of traveling over the years. During a sabbatical paid for by a clergy renewal grant allowed Cheryl and me to take a trip to Switzerland, followed by a week-long boat ride down the Rhine. It was, to this point, a trip of a lifetime, even outpacing my two weeks in Oxford during an earlier sabbatical. I have been fortunate to have had opportunities to see different parts of the world, something that is not true for everyone. Most people don't travel more than a few hundred miles from their homes. The question is, can travel provide a means for spiritual growth? If so, might such travel need to be intentional so that one is more than simply a tourist?
Douglas Brouwer is a retired Presbyterian minister who has done a bit of traveling through the years. Some of that travel might qualify as a pilgrimage, including visits to the Holy Land. He also spent longer periods serving as a pastor or interim pastor of international churches in Europe. It is from these and other opportunities to travel that Brouwer offers this reflection on "The Traveler's Path." He begins with a chapter titled "Our Origin Story," which reminds us that people have been on the move from the very beginning of time. The question is, what defines travel? A basic definition involves movement from one place to another for a variety of reasons, from vacations to work, including religious pilgrimages. This travel changes us. In the course of the book, Brouwer introduces us to various forms of travel, which offer us worthy adventures.
The second chapter speaks to "The Gift of Curiosity," in which he recounts the travels he took growing up with his family that developed within him a sense of curiosity. As this sense of curiosity developed, so did an adventurous spirit. While curiosity and an adventurous spirit are good things, he asks further, "Does Travel Make Us Better People?" (Ch. 2). This is a question that many ask. Some are not sure whether traveling makes us better people or is good for the world. Here, the question is whether travel is more than tourism. Is it nothing more than a waste of money and time that is disastrous to the places visited? This is a good question because many places in the world are overrun by tourists who leave their mark on the site, and not for the good. On the other hand, travel can change us. So there are two sides to this question. Of course, not everyone is free to travel, so how might we "make room for those who cannot travel?" What of those who are imprisoned and can't move? How might we address this situation? (Ch. 4).
In Chapter 5, Brouwer invites us to consider the value of pilgrimage. More specifically, he speaks of "A Protestant Passport to Pilgrimage." By this, he means to respond to concerns by Luther and others about Roman Catholic pilgrimages, which Luther thought contributed to clerical greed. So, while others went on pilgrimages, at least until recently, Protestants did not. However, that is changing. Here he speaks of the visits he made together with church members to the Holy Land, visits that constitute pilgrimages. Like many pastors, he led groups as a tour host (not guide). These were life-changing. I will confess to having resisted such trips, but found my 2013 visit to England as something of a pilgrimage. So, here he invites Protestants to reclaim the concept of pilgrimage. In Chapter 6, "Go Into All the World," Brouwer suggests that "pilgrimage is addictive. Having described trips to the Holy Land, in this chapter, he focuses on a similar trip to Greece and Turkey, to follow the footsteps of Paul. Again, he speaks of these pilgrimages, whether to the Holy Land or Greece and Turkey, helping make the biblical story come alive. Chapter 7 is titled "Daring to Get Lost." Here he speaks of going off the beaten track, going places that might not constitute religious sites but might have meaning, even if it is only one's backyard.
In Chapter 8, "So Many Roads!" Brouwer once again asks whether one's pilgrimages have made us better people. Brouwer understands the question, but suggests that one need not feel guilty if one can't answer the question. There are no guarantees, but you need to get out into the world. Remember that pilgrimages take different forms, even internal ones. In this chapter, Brouwer shares the story of his pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. In sharing this story, he notes that there is more than one path to the city, but all are pilgrimage paths. This journey changed the way he looked at the world. Then there is the question of whether a mission trip might be a pilgrimage (Ch. 9). In sharing stories of mission trips, he invites the reader who has participated in one to consider whether it changed their life and perspective on the world. He also asks the reader to consider who most benefits --- the missionary or the recipients of the mission? In Chapter 10 - "Revisiting Babel," Brouwer takes note of language. Most American travelers don't need to learn another language because so many around the world know English. However, Brouwer found the necessity of learning German when serving as pastor of an international (English-speaking) church in Zurich. He did this because the Swiss government required it of him. What he discovered is that language learning, though challenging for adults, can be part of a movement from hostility to hospitality.
In Chapter 11, Brouwer invites us to join in "Reframing the Art of Travel." He opens with a reflection on his father's work as an artist and what he learned about viewing art. Through art and cultural artifacts, one can know others better. Art is one way to experience others, but so are other monuments. IN Chapter 12, titled "Stolpersteine: Stumbling Stones," he takes note of an effort that began in Germany, where brass plates, engraved with the names of Holocaust victims, were placed in the stepping stones in front of the places they once lived before being arrested and deported. Thousands of these memorials have been placed across Europe as a reminder of lives taken unjustly. I thought as I read this chapter that efforts are currently underway in the United States to remove reminders of injustice as part of "patriotic history." Brouwer notes that some public art, rightly, makes us uncomfortable, but also calls for a response on our part --- that is, a call to action.
Chapter 13, "There's No Place Like 'Home'," takes us to Zurich, where Brouwer was somewhat unexpectedly called to serve a congregation there. As such, he learned anew what home is. Here again, he reflects on learning a new language and discovering a new land, which he would learn to call home. From Zurich, Brouwer takes us on another journey, one that leads to "The Romance of 'Barbarous Coasts'" (ch. 14), in which he recounts a journey to Morocco (once known as the Barbary Coast). Here he speaks of responsible and informed tourism, which includes "paying attention to the way we dress and interact with the people we meet, and being respectful of local customs" (p. 163).
As the journey nears its end, Brouwer writes that "You Can't Go Home Again" (ch. 15). By that, he means that you cannot return to the past reality. Here he speaks of time spent as an interim minister in the Hague, Netherlands. Being of Dutch background (his grandparents on both sides being Dutch immigrants, he discovered that he was truly American and not Dutch. He didn't know the language or really the culture, all of which he discovered, much to his surprise. Thus, he learned that the Netherlands is not his home; the United States is. Western Michigan is home, even if he can't specifically explain why. He just knows it is home.
Chapter 16 is titled "How Can We Write the Final Chapter?" Here he reflects on the idea of the bucket list, an idea that became popular after the Morgan Freeman/Jack Nicholson movie some years ago. The message here is that travel can't simply be something that we check off the list. Rather, the question is one of yearning or longing that continues with us as we take the journey to its end. It is the journey that leads to life life-enriching and transforming experience that is important. The journey continues.
Recognizing that the ability to travel is one of privilege, Brouwer's book can help us engage in travel that is more pilgrimage than tourism. If it is to be life-changing, then this is the path we need to take.
.
Douglas Brouwer is a retired Presbyterian minister who has done a bit of traveling through the years. Some of that travel might qualify as a pilgrimage, including visits to the Holy Land. He also spent longer periods serving as a pastor or interim pastor of international churches in Europe. It is from these and other opportunities to travel that Brouwer offers this reflection on "The Traveler's Path." He begins with a chapter titled "Our Origin Story," which reminds us that people have been on the move from the very beginning of time. The question is, what defines travel? A basic definition involves movement from one place to another for a variety of reasons, from vacations to work, including religious pilgrimages. This travel changes us. In the course of the book, Brouwer introduces us to various forms of travel, which offer us worthy adventures.
The second chapter speaks to "The Gift of Curiosity," in which he recounts the travels he took growing up with his family that developed within him a sense of curiosity. As this sense of curiosity developed, so did an adventurous spirit. While curiosity and an adventurous spirit are good things, he asks further, "Does Travel Make Us Better People?" (Ch. 2). This is a question that many ask. Some are not sure whether traveling makes us better people or is good for the world. Here, the question is whether travel is more than tourism. Is it nothing more than a waste of money and time that is disastrous to the places visited? This is a good question because many places in the world are overrun by tourists who leave their mark on the site, and not for the good. On the other hand, travel can change us. So there are two sides to this question. Of course, not everyone is free to travel, so how might we "make room for those who cannot travel?" What of those who are imprisoned and can't move? How might we address this situation? (Ch. 4).
In Chapter 5, Brouwer invites us to consider the value of pilgrimage. More specifically, he speaks of "A Protestant Passport to Pilgrimage." By this, he means to respond to concerns by Luther and others about Roman Catholic pilgrimages, which Luther thought contributed to clerical greed. So, while others went on pilgrimages, at least until recently, Protestants did not. However, that is changing. Here he speaks of the visits he made together with church members to the Holy Land, visits that constitute pilgrimages. Like many pastors, he led groups as a tour host (not guide). These were life-changing. I will confess to having resisted such trips, but found my 2013 visit to England as something of a pilgrimage. So, here he invites Protestants to reclaim the concept of pilgrimage. In Chapter 6, "Go Into All the World," Brouwer suggests that "pilgrimage is addictive. Having described trips to the Holy Land, in this chapter, he focuses on a similar trip to Greece and Turkey, to follow the footsteps of Paul. Again, he speaks of these pilgrimages, whether to the Holy Land or Greece and Turkey, helping make the biblical story come alive. Chapter 7 is titled "Daring to Get Lost." Here he speaks of going off the beaten track, going places that might not constitute religious sites but might have meaning, even if it is only one's backyard.
In Chapter 8, "So Many Roads!" Brouwer once again asks whether one's pilgrimages have made us better people. Brouwer understands the question, but suggests that one need not feel guilty if one can't answer the question. There are no guarantees, but you need to get out into the world. Remember that pilgrimages take different forms, even internal ones. In this chapter, Brouwer shares the story of his pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. In sharing this story, he notes that there is more than one path to the city, but all are pilgrimage paths. This journey changed the way he looked at the world. Then there is the question of whether a mission trip might be a pilgrimage (Ch. 9). In sharing stories of mission trips, he invites the reader who has participated in one to consider whether it changed their life and perspective on the world. He also asks the reader to consider who most benefits --- the missionary or the recipients of the mission? In Chapter 10 - "Revisiting Babel," Brouwer takes note of language. Most American travelers don't need to learn another language because so many around the world know English. However, Brouwer found the necessity of learning German when serving as pastor of an international (English-speaking) church in Zurich. He did this because the Swiss government required it of him. What he discovered is that language learning, though challenging for adults, can be part of a movement from hostility to hospitality.
In Chapter 11, Brouwer invites us to join in "Reframing the Art of Travel." He opens with a reflection on his father's work as an artist and what he learned about viewing art. Through art and cultural artifacts, one can know others better. Art is one way to experience others, but so are other monuments. IN Chapter 12, titled "Stolpersteine: Stumbling Stones," he takes note of an effort that began in Germany, where brass plates, engraved with the names of Holocaust victims, were placed in the stepping stones in front of the places they once lived before being arrested and deported. Thousands of these memorials have been placed across Europe as a reminder of lives taken unjustly. I thought as I read this chapter that efforts are currently underway in the United States to remove reminders of injustice as part of "patriotic history." Brouwer notes that some public art, rightly, makes us uncomfortable, but also calls for a response on our part --- that is, a call to action.
Chapter 13, "There's No Place Like 'Home'," takes us to Zurich, where Brouwer was somewhat unexpectedly called to serve a congregation there. As such, he learned anew what home is. Here again, he reflects on learning a new language and discovering a new land, which he would learn to call home. From Zurich, Brouwer takes us on another journey, one that leads to "The Romance of 'Barbarous Coasts'" (ch. 14), in which he recounts a journey to Morocco (once known as the Barbary Coast). Here he speaks of responsible and informed tourism, which includes "paying attention to the way we dress and interact with the people we meet, and being respectful of local customs" (p. 163).
As the journey nears its end, Brouwer writes that "You Can't Go Home Again" (ch. 15). By that, he means that you cannot return to the past reality. Here he speaks of time spent as an interim minister in the Hague, Netherlands. Being of Dutch background (his grandparents on both sides being Dutch immigrants, he discovered that he was truly American and not Dutch. He didn't know the language or really the culture, all of which he discovered, much to his surprise. Thus, he learned that the Netherlands is not his home; the United States is. Western Michigan is home, even if he can't specifically explain why. He just knows it is home.
Chapter 16 is titled "How Can We Write the Final Chapter?" Here he reflects on the idea of the bucket list, an idea that became popular after the Morgan Freeman/Jack Nicholson movie some years ago. The message here is that travel can't simply be something that we check off the list. Rather, the question is one of yearning or longing that continues with us as we take the journey to its end. It is the journey that leads to life life-enriching and transforming experience that is important. The journey continues.
Recognizing that the ability to travel is one of privilege, Brouwer's book can help us engage in travel that is more pilgrimage than tourism. If it is to be life-changing, then this is the path we need to take.
.
September 20, 2025
What is it: brief stops along the way.
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Why 3 stars: my experience of Brouwer's The Traveler's Path is maybe best clarified by the framing analogy Brouwer occasionally signals in his prose throughout the book--that he and the reader are on a journey together, the book a kind of travel experience in and of itself.
There's a charm to the image, and as someone who strongly supports not killing the author when reading I'm all for thinking of the writing and reading of a book as a journey together. But I'm also reminded of how often the reality of travel often makes of these journeys a speedy tour through several successive destinations without offering time to settle into any one place or linger with any one person met. Because The Traveler's Path is structurally a sequence of chapters that each identifies a theme relevant to travel and faith, giving that theme maybe a page or so of general introduction, and then telling stories or sharing others' stories of travel experiences relevant to that theme. But these chapters, despite introducing the theme and sharing stories for those themes, tend to tiptoe around actually analyzing those themes. There are questions raised, but all of them left open. Evidential experiences might be described, but no claims made about what's evidenced. There's a sensitivity to the nuances and complications surrounding travel and its many kinds of intersection with a life of faith, but that sensitivity seems at times to almost refuse directly saying anything.
The cost is that while this book shares a lot of perspective on travel and, particularly, a lot of perspective from a particular author who has traveled a lot, I after reading am coming away feeling like I've listened to someone relay stories and relate experiences but not actually provide a place to rest and retrospect on those stories and experiences, no opportunity to reflect within the pages of the book because Brouwer himself seems reluctant to share any conclusions he's come to (or reluctant to come to those conclusions in the first place).
The journey is pleasant, and the scope of it seems to cover (almost) any kind of travel experience, but I feel like I've been led by a tour guide who's happy to tell us about his experiences but hesitant to let us really get to know him as we tour places he's happy to show us but hesitant to invite us to stay a while and explore.
----
You might also like: The Eight Mountains (my review of it here).
----
Why 3 stars: my experience of Brouwer's The Traveler's Path is maybe best clarified by the framing analogy Brouwer occasionally signals in his prose throughout the book--that he and the reader are on a journey together, the book a kind of travel experience in and of itself.
There's a charm to the image, and as someone who strongly supports not killing the author when reading I'm all for thinking of the writing and reading of a book as a journey together. But I'm also reminded of how often the reality of travel often makes of these journeys a speedy tour through several successive destinations without offering time to settle into any one place or linger with any one person met. Because The Traveler's Path is structurally a sequence of chapters that each identifies a theme relevant to travel and faith, giving that theme maybe a page or so of general introduction, and then telling stories or sharing others' stories of travel experiences relevant to that theme. But these chapters, despite introducing the theme and sharing stories for those themes, tend to tiptoe around actually analyzing those themes. There are questions raised, but all of them left open. Evidential experiences might be described, but no claims made about what's evidenced. There's a sensitivity to the nuances and complications surrounding travel and its many kinds of intersection with a life of faith, but that sensitivity seems at times to almost refuse directly saying anything.
The cost is that while this book shares a lot of perspective on travel and, particularly, a lot of perspective from a particular author who has traveled a lot, I after reading am coming away feeling like I've listened to someone relay stories and relate experiences but not actually provide a place to rest and retrospect on those stories and experiences, no opportunity to reflect within the pages of the book because Brouwer himself seems reluctant to share any conclusions he's come to (or reluctant to come to those conclusions in the first place).
The journey is pleasant, and the scope of it seems to cover (almost) any kind of travel experience, but I feel like I've been led by a tour guide who's happy to tell us about his experiences but hesitant to let us really get to know him as we tour places he's happy to show us but hesitant to invite us to stay a while and explore.
----
You might also like: The Eight Mountains (my review of it here).
August 7, 2025
I really enjoyed this book and found it worth reading. Rev. Brouwer has an easy to read style—like he is talking to me and sharing his journeys. He is honest about the difficulties of living in other countries and the joys of coming home to a place that you once wanted to leave. We have lived as Americans abroad twice in our lives—both times in St. Andrew’s, Scotland so I could empathize with the ways one feels a stranger in a place that is wonderful and welcoming in many ways. I could envy him retiring to a beach community in Western Michigan and enjoying those sunsets day after day. I fear we may never visit that area again. He ends his book thinking of the last journey we all will take at the end of our days—as one more adventure. May that be true!
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