Sacred Geographies and Pilgrimage

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue invites interdisciplinary perspectives from the humanities and social sciences to explore the sacred geographies of pilgrimages, religious tourism, and religious travel. Sacred sites hold profound significance, serving as both physical and spiritual touchstones for communities; they preserve cultural heritage, support spiritual and religious practices, and nurture a deep sense of connection to the divine. These sites, and their surrounding landscapes, embody unique intersections of spiritual, cultural, and often environmental importance, playing a crucial role in shaping identity, passing down knowledge, and enhancing collective well-being.

These sacred geographies have historically facilitated religious travel, including traditional pilgrimages, where the driving force is religious feeling—and, in modern times, religious tourism—which focuses on the quest for knowledge. In this sense, sacred geography is retrospective, looking backwards, where tradition and ritual syntax are emphasized. At times this involves a search for authenticity in which, regardless of motivation, the religious traveler is seeking truth, both in a cosmological and phenomenological sense. Yet, today’s pilgrims and religious tourists rarely desire to experience asceticism and prefer modern accommodation and amenities. Indeed, for some, the journey has become more important than the destination itself.

Sacred spaces also propel us forward into new spiritual understandings, novel religious movements, or modern mysticism. They can lead to the appropriation of extant religious rituals and practices, often synthesized into new mobilities and landscapes. We see this with travelers who embrace nature and make the ecological sacred, where the ascent of a mountain trail is at once a test of endurance and also a show of respect for one’s place in the sacred order. This sense of modern spirituality may be one in which people travel to religious destinations and participate in religious practices with little or no connection to the religion associated with the sacred site. A good example is the millions of tourists who participate in the Camino de Santiago without holding Christian beliefs or having a Christian background. These folks desire reflection and self-examination for self-improvement, and not for religious fulfillment. The growing popularity of this pilgrimage has sparked the “Camino-ization” effect, in which where governments and tourism bureaucracies seek the development of new religious trails throughout the world, with India’s Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive (Prashad) being a good example.

The appeal is to both the profane and the sacred. Yet, motivations are not the only way of understanding pilgrimage; there has been a shift in focus from a ritualized center to the surrounding landscape. Thus, holy sites should be polythetic in their classifications as they are better conceptualized as pilgrimage complexes, where the political, economic, and cultural intersect. To understand how geopolitical tensions have impacted these relationships and assemblages, it is necessary to unpack the larger context of sacred geographies.

We are pleased to invite contributions to this Special Issue of Religions on a wide range of issues related to the intersection of pilgrimage, geography, and diverse notions of the sacred.

This call for papers asks: How are sacred geographies understood by modern pilgrimage and religious tourism scholars? How can a holy space look both backward and forward? How do modern understandings of spiritualism fit in a milieu of traditional religious syntax? How can recent political, cultural, and social developments help us better understand modern pilgrimage complexes?

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• Pilgrimage and ritual;
• Sacred site governance;
• Religious destination management;
• Religious networks and assemblages;
• The spatiality of religion;
• Religious mobilities;
• Sustainability and sacred sites;
• The protection of sacred spaces;
• Geopolitical considerations of sacred geographies.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Please submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing your contribution by July 31st to the Guest Editor Dr. Dino Bozonelos (dbozonelos@csusm.edu). Please include the author’s name, contact details, affiliation, and a short (150 word) biography. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor to ensure proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Authors will be notified of the outcome by October 30th. Full manuscripts will be submitted directly to Religions for double-blind peer review by April 30th, 2026.

Prof. Dr. Dino Bozonelos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• religion, spirituality
• pilgrimage
• religious tourism
• sacred sites
• spiritual travel
• religious travel