Greetings From A Vanished World, During a 500 Mile Trek

Chris Lowney, author of A Vanished World was named a Managing Director of J.P. Morgan & Co. while still in his thirties, he was also a Jesuit seminarian for seven years, and he now serves part-time as Special Assistant to the President of the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB), a leading U.S.-based Catholic charity providing health care programs and services to people in need around the world. He is currently undertaking a 500-mile pilgrimage to raise money for charity. Below is his introduction to the OUP blog.

It´s my pleasure to contribute my first post to the OUP blog. It marks two related events. The first is the imminent publication of my book, A Vanished World, in paperback by OUP. The book explores the triumphs and tragedies of medieval Spain´s Christians, Muslims, and Jews. At the dawn of the 21st century, we three faith groups (and civilization at large) have gotten ourselves into a terrible predicament, and my book draws lessons learned from our ancestors who lived together so long ago in Spain. Together, they utterly revolutionized the west—how we count numbers, the food we eat, even cowboy culture! Sadly, their civilization finally dissolved in jihad, Crusade, and inquisition. A Vanished World tells these stories.

This post also coincides with the 500 mile walking trek I´ve just started along the famous medieval pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela that is profiled at length in my book. For a thousand years, Christians have trekked to Compostela, and I´m doing the same over these next 30 days. I´ve already climbed up the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles, and down the other side.

I hope to keep reporting to OUP readers through this blog as I make the trek, and I look forward to your comments either on my book or on the trek.

To read more about Lowney’s travels visit his blog.