SailingActs: Following an Ancient Voyage

Linford Stutzman

Good Books,  October 2006

Seafaring isn't for the faint of heart. It wasn't for the Apostle Paul in the first century A.D.-- shipwrecked, imprisoned, and often a stranger in foreign lands.

And it turned out to be a heart-stopping task some 2,000 years later when Linford Stutzman, a religion professor, and his wife undertook a 14-month journey by sailboat. They visited every site where St. Paul stopped on his tumultuous missionary journeys.

SailingActs traces this 21st-century voyage from Volos, Greece, to Rome, Italy, by car, by foot, by motorized scooter, but mostly on a 33-foot boat, logging more than 3,600 nautical miles over two sailing seasons.

Stutzman's knowledge of 1st-century Rome's socio-political setting is an informative backdrop to St. Paul's activities and writings.

The book includes dozens of photos, maps showing the couple's travel routes, a list of all the repairs and replacements Stutzman made to the aging boat (which he negotiated to buy sight-unseen), and an itinerary of places they visited.