By The Rev. Jeehei Park, PhD, Assistant Professor of New Testament
Fourteen members of 51视频, together with four friends from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (APTS), traveled to T眉rkiye and Greece from May 24 to June 6. It was a journey rich with adventure, exploration, fellowship, and laughter.
This trip was intended to be more than a pilgrimage. I encouraged students to imagine the world in which the earliest followers of Christ lived鈥攅arning their livelihoods, engaging with people of varied backgrounds, and passing by temples dedicated to the imperial cult鈥攚hile wrestling with how to define and live out their faith. We stood in a third-century shop in the heart of Sardis owned by a Jewish merchant, read an inscription in Pergamon that hailed a Roman emperor as kyrios, and walked the Via Egnatia, the ancient road linking the Adriatic Sea to Istanbul since the second century CE. In these encounters, participants saw that Christianity was never born in isolation; from its earliest days, it was embedded in complex political, cultural, and social contexts鈥攋ust as our faith today cannot be separated from our own. Many expressed that the trip profoundly broadened and transformed their understanding of the New Testament.
Our travels were extensive: Istanbul, Ephesos, Sardis, Pergamon, Assos, Kavala, Philippi, Thessaloniki, Meteora, Delphi, Corinth, and Athens. Yet each day was marked by joy as we shared meals, rides, and conversation. I was deeply grateful for the openness and curiosity everyone brought as they engaged new cultures鈥攆rom tasting unfamiliar dishes to navigating local customs. It was a special delight to share the road with our friends from APTS, including Dr. Rod Caruthers, with whom I co-led the trip, and to be guided by our beloved companions, G眉lin Pazaro臒lu and Niki Vlachou, whose deep knowledge was matched by their humor, kindness, and warmth.
Ellen Huckabay, 51视频 Master of Divinity senior, shared, 鈥淭he travel seminar to Turkey and Greece was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore early Christianity under the expert guidance of Dr. Jeehei Park and Dr. Rodney Caruthers. I feel incredibly privileged to have visited the lands where some of the first, tender shoots of the Christian religion germinated and began to take root. Immersing myself in the historical and cultural context of the early church has profoundly shaped my understanding of the New Testament and will continue to inform my exegesis and theology for years to come. Dr. Park often reminded us that we were not on a spiritual pilgrimage to follow the footsteps of Paul, and she was right! The seminar experience was something much deeper: an academic and theological engagement that not only enhanced my studies in biblical and church history but also strengthened my spiritual formation and vocation as a priest.鈥�
I proposed this trip in hopes of reigniting and expanding our travel seminar program, and it would not have been possible without the steadfast support of Dr. Scott Bader-Saye and Mr. Fred Clement. I am deeply grateful to these two leaders鈥攁nd to every participant鈥攆or affirming the enduring value of such firsthand experience.
鈥淥ne of my favorite moments came in a kitchen, not a cathedral,鈥� reflected Tina Francis Mutungu, 51视频 Master of Divinity senior. 鈥淎 family welcomed us for an olive oil tasting that became a quiet Eucharist of everyday things: tomatoes from a neighbor鈥檚 garden, thick Greek yogurt drizzled with oil, briny feta, dark chocolate with sea salt, and cinnamon-dusted semolina halva鈥攄ense, earthy, sweet. We ate, we laughed, we nodded in the kind of silence that speaks its own benediction. It wasn鈥檛 liturgy, but it was grace poured out like oil in a language we didn鈥檛 need to translate. Maybe that grace was for all of us鈥攆or the travelers and the hosts, for those at the table and those who came before us.
