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Professor Phillip Thomason and Son Discuss Spain Pilgrimage

Read more about the Thomasons' journey in "The Way of the Pilgrims" on the Pepperdine Magazine Web site.

Pepperdine professor Phillip Thomason and his son, Brian, will share stories from their 500-mile pilgrimage through Spain at Payson Library, Malibu, on Thursday, Nov. 29, at 4 p.m. They will recount in words and photographs their journey, which was both physically demanding and spiritually enriching.

In June 2011, Thomason, his wife Cathy, and son Brian (Pepperdine's controller) embarked on a journey through the medieval Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James), from St. Jean Pied De Port on the French-Spanish border in the Pyrenees, to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of St. James the Apostle are supposedly interred. It was, as Brian notes,"...a little stroll of some 500 miles."

Motivated by what he could share with his students the following semester, Phillip viewed the road as his classroom and the Spaniards his teachers. "Anything I can do to better understand and learn more about the people and culture of Spain, I wanted to do," he says. "And the fact that we would be doing this together as a family was the icing on the cake. It is trite but true that anything one loves is better when shared."

Join the Thomasons as they share tales of their ascent up the Pyrenees, nearly freezing to death, and being in immediate danger of slipping off a narrow path down sheer drops on both sides.

For reservations for this presentation, call (310) 506-6785 or email Ken LaZebnik.