Religion, Pilgrimage and Tourism (original) (raw)

For as long as human beings have existed they have been interested in travel. Their homelands and cultural norms have always been constructed with reference to, or contrasted with, the lands and habits of ‘the Other’. Implicit in this statement is the notion that some places are more special (perhaps sacred) than others, and this is the core of the intimate relationship between human beings, place and travel, and religion. The field encompassed by this four-volume reprint series “Religion, Pilgrimage, and Tourism” is a vast one. Its content ranges from those incidences of travel which are sanctified by the so-called ‘world religions’ (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism), such as the Hajj, the Camino de Santiago, the Shikoku Circuit, the Kumbh Mela, and the hope expressed at the Passover meal, “next year in Jerusalem”. However, the field extends far beyond these “official” journeys, and encompasses the nomadic wanderings of Australian Aboriginal people through their tribal lands, travel to participate in Native American potlatch gatherings, the gathering of Ancient Greeks every four years to honour Zeus Olympios at the Olympic Games, and the modern Druids who perform rituals at Stonehenge during the midsummer solstice. Yet beyond the immediately religious lies journeying that is motivated by individual ‘spiritual’ needs, which may involve traditional sacred routes and sites (Westerners going to Indian ashrams), and radically eclectic, non-traditional pathways (for example, Wagner aficionados who travel to experience productions of the Ring Cycle). In the post-religious milieu of the 21st century, almost any journey to almost any site may be religious and/or spiritual, a journey “redolent with meaning” (Digance 2006). The series comprises four volumes, which reprint 70 articles and chapters (of which no more than 25% will be chapters from edited volumes). The final shape of the four volumes is not yet definitively known, but is likely to be: Volume 1 (methodology and definition of the field), Volume 2 (historical material, ancient, medieval, early modern etc), Volume 3 (specific examples of modern pilgrimage and spiritual tourism), and Volume 4 (secular and civil religious/spiritual travel).