Exploring Pilgrimage: Reflections of an Academic Traveller (original) (raw)
Related papers
Beyond the 'Turnerian Tradition': Differing Interpretations of Pilgrimage and Tourism at Lourdes
Annals of Tourism Research
The deepening sociological analysis of travel and tourism (to • which this very journal has made an invaluable contribution) • has built upon the assumption that there are clear analogies • between tourism and pilgrimage. The analogy was asserted in the • pioneering anthropological examination of Christian pilgrimage • by Victor Turner (1973, 1974a, 1974b, 1974c, 1978) which, • according to Cohen (1988), has led to a ' Turnerian tradition' • within the sociology of travel and tourism as exemplified in • the writings of Graburn (1977, 1983), Moore (1980), • Pfaffenburger (1983) and Lett (1983). Ironically, even as the 'Turnerian tradition' was being • established in the field of tourism studies the basis of • Turner's project was being challenged among those studying • contemporary pilgrimage in different world religions. The • implications of this challenge for the now well established • assumptions about the analogy between tourism and pilgrimage • are considera...
Pilgrimage and tourism at Lourdes, France
Annals of Tourism Research, 1992
Despite the contribution of the "Turnerian tradition" to the analysis of the similarities between tourism and pilgrimage, developments withm the study of pilgrimage call for a critique that can reveal the complexity of pilgrimage and tourism. This study of a Roman Catholic shrine explores the various meanings and practices that underlie the categories of "pilgrim" and "tourist" in a locale where Turnerian communitas is strictly limited.
Reflections on Pilgrimage to Lourdes
This file contains reflections by a number of my friends whom I have come to know through Lourdes. They kindly responded to my invitation to write a personal reflection on their time at Lourdes and they provide a fascinating insight to the changes which have taken place in pilgrimage to Lourdes since the 1950s and within the Roman Catholic Church more generally. PLEASE DO NOT CITE WITHOUT THE AUTHORS’ PERMISSION WHICH CAN BE SOUGHT THROUGH ME
Pilgrimage and Academic Journeys
Pilgrimage and Academic Journeys, 2019
Since the late 1980s there has been a massive increase in academic research and writing about diverse types of pilgrimage (religious, spiritual, secular etc) and hybrid forms (pilgrimage tourism). Yet in the rapid growth of pilgrimage studies relatively little attention has been paid to the researcher’s personal engagement. This is surprising given the influence of Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture where Victor and Edith Turner make clear their commitment as Roman Catholics and Edith Turner’s subsequent writing on Catholic pilgrimage as well as the detailed discussion by Jill Dubisch of her position as a female ethnographer in various ethnographic studies (Dubisch 1995, Michalowski and Dubisch 2001). I seek here to fill this gap by drawing on my experience as a voluntary worker at the famous Roman Catholic shrine of Lourdes in France which I visited every year for a week between 1968 and 1992 and then again from 2014. Since my most intense experience was working as a helper in the baths, I examine the changing procedures concerning bathing and my own sensuous experience of bathing. More generally, Lourdes provides a fine case study of the role played by water in the relationship between the material and human world.
Journal of Empirical Theology, 1991
In the eighties a growing interest for popular religious phenomena like pilgrimage was noticeable. This article is aimed at the theological valuation of pilgrimage. This is done by means of the results of an empirical research carried out on Dutch pilgrims visiting Lourdes. The research shows that the pilgrims are close to the church and to religion. The motives to go on a pilgrimage differ for older and younger pilgrims. The elders go on the basis of especially religious motives (seeking help and support and a deepening of faith). The youths go on the basis of especially recreative motive and to meet other pilgrims. The effects are equal for both groups. The physical well-being does not improve, but the psychological well-being does show a slight improvement.
Pilgrimage in the Modern World: Collected Stories
2018
CATHERINE PAGE LAGARDE: Pilgrimage in the Modern World: Collected Stories (Under the direction of Dr. Matthew Bondurant) This thesis seeks to creatively explore various aspects of the modern pilgrimage in a collection of two nonfictional personal essays and one fictional short story, all of which are thematically linked. It is a study of faith, doubt, journey, and their intersection and manifestation in the modern world. It is inspired both by personal experiences as well as the works of various authors, most notably Carlos Eire, Walter Macken, Dodie Smith, Sharon Creech, Sigrid Undset, St. Thomas More, and St. Thomas Aquinas. This work seeks to give modern context and understanding to traditional understandings of “pilgrimage,” as described in The Catechism of the Catholic Church. Far from changing or turning away from this traditional understanding of the word, this work serves instead to uphold it within a modern context.
Pilgrimage is often seen as a physical journey to a sacred destination fixed by custom, destination-centred and broadly penitential in tone. The work of anthropologists in the last century broadened definitions to consider pilgrimage, across a range of faiths, in terms of a journey of transition and formation of identity. More recent historical scholarship has critiqued the longer development of our idea of pilgrimage, as well as its theological structures and markers. This diachronic approach to pilgrimage has also considered its origins with respect to early Christian conceptions of the life of the Christian in society and found resonances for patterns of lay pilgrimage in early monastic ideas. Such historical-theological dimension of research into pilgrimage provides a useful platform from which we can interrogate the idea of 'faith tourism' or 'pilgrimage tourism'. Many people of faith visit particular churches and holy sites to invoke their historic dimensions as well as to see what is presently on such sites. Visitors seek to re-enact historical narratives in the performance of certain pilgrimages and liturgies associated with them. Historical studies of theology thus may identify narratives that drive choices of action in pilgrimage. An historical reflection on pilgrimage may also be productive in widening definitions of pilgrimage for future development and may offer ideas for development of resources for the traveller.
RESEARCHING PILGRIMAGE: Continuity and Transformations
Pilgrimage is one of the oldest and most basic forms of population mobility known to human society, and its political, social, cultural and economic implications have always been, and continue to be, substantial. This study aims to examine key issues, arguments and conceptualizations in the scholarship on pilgrimage in order to better understand how it has changed over the years. The findings indicate a shift to a postmodern approach within the study of pilgrimage, particularly with regard to the increasingly obfuscated boundary between tourism and pilgrimage reflected in the terms secular pilgrimage and religious pilgrimage. Dedifferentiation has penetrated the scholarship in terms of its features and its multidisciplinary treatment by researchers.