Religious travel has gone commercial and can even appeal to non-churchgoers like me, said Toni Salama in the Chicago Tribune. Recently, I signed up for one of the most popular of these itineraries. The nine-night tour followed in the footsteps of St. Paul, as described in the Book of Acts—though logistics prevented us from duplicating the exact order of the apostle’s journey.
We started out in Athens, where on an outcropping known as Mars Hill Paul spoke to the crowds. The surrounding panorama includes the Temple of Athena Nike and the Temple of Hephaestus, both of which were already “a good 400 years old when B.C. changed to A.D.” When Paul told the onlookers that “God does not live in temples built by hands,” these are the structures he was referring to. Next stop was Corinth, renowned in ancient times for its temple prostitutes. Paul arrived here around A.D. 51 or 52. Among its more fascinating surviving attractions are public toilets—keyhole-shaped stone seats, arranged around a rectangular courtyard, which were “not at all private.” Set just off the agora, or marketplace, this was where everyone socialized.
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