Tourists and pilgrims.

I am always impressed by Matthew Milliner. Here's something he had to say about tourists and pilgrims:

“The tourist seeks interesting places. The pilgrim seeks to realize the way that a particular place freshly articulates the truths of faith. Hence the pilgrim, like the tourist, can be deeply impressed by the scale of the Parthenon, but equally overwhelmed by Mars Hill just below, where Paul's message, then mocked, would soon make of the that Parthenon a church. The pilgrim, like the tourist, will be awestruck by the Roman forum, but struck all the more - looking out at the mushrooming church domes over the Eternal City skyline - that the forbidden religion overcame imperial might. Pilgrims, like tourists, can’t help but be affected by the pyramids, only to then sense the shattering contrast of the Sinai wilderness, where the man-made pyramids are dwarfed by far larger natural ones, and where Pharonic splendor is both tempered and judged.”

If I kept quoting the good stuff I'd just steal the entire post.