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Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe

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A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 December 2021) | Viewed by 37995

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Prof. Dr. Mariano P. Barbato

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Guest Editor

1. Center for Religion and Modernity, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
2. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Passau, 94030 Passau, Germany
Interests: political science; international relations; political theory; history; religion and politics; Europe; pilgrim studies; papacy
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Dear Colleagues,

“Europe is born on a pilgrimage.” This phrase, often ascribed to the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, might be apocryphal but it captures the important role of this ongoing practice in Europe. In a secularizing continent, pilgrimage is a religious ritual that is not only still flourishing but on the rise.

Religions typically have a public dimension of social gathering, arguing, and worship. The ritual of pilgrimage constitutes in many religions an important expression of this public dimension. Christianity, in particular Catholicism, is still the first religion that comes to mind when thinking about pilgrimage in Europe, but it is by far not the only community that engages in this praxis.

Pilgrimage has dimensions beyond the religious experience. Pilgrimages can spill over into various ways of religious mobilization with a social, political, and also economic impact. When religious experiences meet with cultural landscapes and economic interests, questions of political power begin to rise. Varieties of pilgrimage from spiritual tourism to religious protest shape the public dimension of pilgrimage and have an impact on various levels of European societies.

Pilgrim Studies is an emerging interdisciplinary field that takes these various sociological, cultural, geographical, economic, and political implications into account.

The present Special Issue seeks to continue and elaborate on the existing research agendas and to establish a forum for new approaches, historical traditions, current trends, comparative approaches, conceptual developments, and methodological questions are of interest. Whose frames guide the pilgrims? Who profits from the pilgrims’ decisions? What kind of identity emerges when pilgrims depart and return?

The volume invites contributions from the fields of political science, history, geography, theology, sociology, religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, media studies, literature studies, tourism and travel studies, and the whole range of humanities and social science. The Special Issue encourages the submission of a broad range of papers from disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary perspectives in order to elaborate on the empirical and theoretical aspects of all forms of pilgrimage and related religious mobilization in Europe. The following themes may be included: historical and current pilgrimages of Europeans and in Europe; paths, events, spaces, landscapes, and persons of pilgrims’ interest; social, political, and economic impacts of pilgrimages, religious mobilization spilling over from pilgrimages or constituting pilgrimages; religious rituals; music, art, icons, cultural heritage; pilgrim popes and papal pilgrims, power and pilgrimage, economy of pilgrimage, spiritual tourism; political mobilization of pilgrims, Santiago de Compostela and the Way of St. James; Marian devotions, Holy Land, Jerusalem, Rome, Via Francigena, Canterbury, Mount Athos, Assisi, Saint Michael, Sacred Heart, Holy Shroud, Image of the Divine Mercy, Egeria, Labre; wandering monks and virgins, folk piety, crusades, material religion, rite de passage, Turner, critique of pilgrimage and wayfarer, Pilgrim’s Progress, Pilgrim City, Pilgrim’s Tale, homo viator, local shrines, saints, Uman, Oberammergau, Taizé, World Youth Day, Holy Year, virtual pilgrims.

Prof. Dr. Mariano P. Barbato
Guest Editor

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Keywords

pilgrimage
pilgrims
mobilization
Europe

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Published Papers (12 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 324 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Main Philosophical Inspirations in the Teaching of John Paul II during His Pilgrimages to Poland

by Ryszard Zajączkowski

Religions 2022, 13(2), 106; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13020106 - 21 Jan 2022

Viewed by 3715

Abstract

The article focuses on the philosophical aspects of John Paul II’s teachings during his pilgrimages to Poland. The pope, as an academic and philosopher, often discussed, in his teaching, topics that had also previously been part of his scholarly philosophical studies. Therefore, the philosophical legacy of Karol Wojtyła serves a significant context that enriches the papal teachings. This way, a complementing light is shed on his teachings, the terms he was using gain a deeper meaning and one can observe a deeper sense in his message. Under the influence of the statements of John Paul II during his pilgrimages to Poland, an unmistakable impression arises that they form a logical and comprehensive moral teaching firmly rooted in his pre-pontifical theological and philosophical thought, developing ideas (especially in the theological dimension) and giving them practical expression. The philosophical work of Karol Wojtyła is an important pillar and source of inspiration for the theology of John Paul II, especially in his teaching about the human person, laying the foundations for Christian anthropology. At the end of the paper, a specific aspect of the papal teaching in the Polish context is stressed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

17 pages, 2350 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Ways of Things: Mobilizing Charismatic Objects in Oberammergau and Its Passion Play

by Jan Mohr and Julia Stenzel

Religions 2022, 13(1), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13010071 - 12 Jan 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2211

Abstract

The mobilization processes initiated by the medieval practice of Christian pilgrimage do not only concern the journeys of human travellers but also of things. The transport of objects to and from pilgrimage sites derives from a pre-modern concept of charisma as a specific kind of energy that can be transferred to things and substances. This mutual mobilization of humans and things can be described as the entangled processes of charismatic charging and re-charging; we argue that this pre-modern logic of contiguity and contagion has survived the multiple transformations of individual travel until today. Even travel dispositives of the 20th and 21st centuries presuppose kinds of situational and spatialized charisma involving human and non-human agents. We illustrate this by the example of the world-renowned Oberammergau Passion Play with its unique playing continuity from the early 17th century onwards. We argue that by taking objects home from elevated places, situational and site-specific charisma can be taken home. To describe the relationship between travel by pilgrims, the mobility of objects, and the mutual charismatic charging of elevated places and things, we propose three perspectives on the material remains of elevated situations. In addition to relics and souvenirs, we propose ‘spolia’ as a third category which allows for the description of discontinuity and transformation in practices of elevating things. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

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21 pages, 358 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Religiosity and Spirituality of German-Speaking Pilgrims on the Way of St. James

by Detlef Lienau, Stefan Huber and Michael Ackert

Religions 2022, 13(1), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13010051 - 6 Jan 2022

Viewed by 1592

Abstract

The article examines the intensity and structure of religiosity and spirituality of German-speaking foot and bicycle pilgrims on the Way of St. James within the framework of a multidimensional model of religiosity. The following nine aspects are distinguished: religious questions, faith, religious and [...] Read more.

N = 425

German-speaking pilgrims of the Way of St. James from the years 2017 and 2018 are analyzed. The data of the Religion Monitor 2017 from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (

N = 2837

) serves as a population-representative comparison sample. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and multiple regression analyses are used to analyze and to compare the two groups. The results show that German-speaking pilgrims in the analyzed sample have substantially higher values on all dimensions of religiosity than the general population in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This difference is most pronounced in the spiritual self-concept. However, for most pilgrims, the categories religious and spiritual are not mutually exclusive. Rather, spirituality forms a basis shared by almost all pilgrims in the sample, to which religiousness is added for many. Further, results are discussed in the light of the existing foot and bicycle pilgrimage research. Conclusively, it can be said that tourism and church actors should consider the religious character of pilgrims, which remains despite all changes in the religious landscape. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

31 pages, 408 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pastoral Support for Married Couples and Families during the Pilgrimages of John Paul II to Poland

by Urszula Dudziak

Religions 2022, 13(1), 37; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13010037 - 31 Dec 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2270

Abstract

Pilgrimages are one of the forms of popular piety carried out for centuries and in various ways. A special type of pilgrimage are papal pilgrimages to individual countries, which is the implementation of Christ’s mission: ‘Go and make disciples of all nations (…). and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you’ (Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu w przekładzie z języków oryginalnych. 1980. Mt 28: 19–20). Pilgrimages give the Pope the opportunity to come closer with the faithful and confirm them in their faith. They also make possible common prayer on different continents and teaching, the personal perception of which can bring people a profound change and improvement of life. John Paul II was the first after 455 years non-·Italian pope to visit his country of origin, Poland, eight times. He spent 64 days in his homeland and delivered 264 speeches. He taught freedom and continued his catechesis on marriage and the family, which was a topic to which he attached great importance. The subject of marriage and family is an important matter for the whole world. Therefore, it is worth introducing the papal teaching delivered during all pilgrimages to Poland to people from other countries, especially since some of the speeches are not translated into English. The article is a selection of pro-family content contained in the speeches of John Paul II in Poland, useful in the formation of spouses and parents. It may prove useful in their marriages and families, as well as in the professional help provided to students undertaking education in family life, students in the field of familiology preparing for marriage, spouses, parents and grandparents who educate their children and grandchildren. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

14 pages, 309 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Young Offenders on the Camino de Santiago—Theoretical Background of the Learning Walks

by Yvonne Knospe and Karsten Koenig

Religions 2022, 13(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13010005 - 21 Dec 2021

Viewed by 3523

Abstract

Delinquent behaviour is predominantly an expression of adolescent developmental phases, but at the same time a possible entry into criminal careers. Where socio-educational measures and admonitions no longer help, society reacts with youth detention and imprisonment as a last resort, in doing so it brings the young people into an environment of violence and power. The concept of the socio-educational pilgrimage as an alternative measure to imprisonment takes the young people out of this context and offers space for reflection and self-efficacy. In this article, different concepts of Learning Walks for young offenders are discussed and theoretically analysed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

19 pages, 6009 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Innovations in a Traditional Landscape of Pilgrimage: The Via Francigena del Sud towards Rome and Other Apulian Pilgrim’s Routes

by Anna Trono and Luigi Oliva

Religions 2021, 12(12), 1065; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121065 - 1 Dec 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4075

Abstract

Religious routes and itineraries can be seen as promoting not only the sharing of ethical and religious values and sentiments of peace and brotherhood but also the awareness and personal growth of the traveller. Those who walk remote pilgrimage paths today wish to experience the fascination of the past, to feel something of the dread and the passion of ancient travellers, but they also seek to fulfil an emotional and intellectual need for authenticity, spirituality and culture. The Puglia region has numerous religious paths that arose in past centuries and continue to be practised by modern pilgrims, who treat the journey as an emotional, educational, social and participatory experience. Appropriate exploitation of this type of journey would enable the promotion of a “gentle” but no less successful tourism, above all in a period of social distancing and global suffering. The present study starts with a presentation of some of the precursors of the many routes that led from the Orient towards Rome, such as those of the Apostle Peter, St Francis of Assisi and the anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux. It then examines the new values that prompt people to follow the Via Francigena del Sud that runs along the Italian peninsula linking Europe north of the Alps to the ports of Puglia, and it is just an exemplary case aimed at fulfilling the potential of eastern Mediterranean coastal regions by offering cultural routes and itineraries for sustainable and quality tourism. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

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15 pages, 305 KiB

Open AccessArticle

When “I” Becomes “We”: Religious Mobilization, Pilgrimage and Political Protests

by Adrian Schiffbeck

Religions 2021, 12(9), 735; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090735 - 8 Sep 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2614

Abstract

Scholars have extensively studied social and psychological components of pilgrimage in the past decades. Its political ingredients have less been taken into account. Moreover, there is marginal scientific evidence on connections between pilgrimage and political protests: A response to injustice within a specific agenda and certain goals, remembrance, testimony, imagination, as well as transformation, along with communion and solidarity—are some common features of pilgrims and protesters. There is also the resource mobilization factor—to be analyzed here with a view upon the Romanian 1989 anti-communist revolution in Timișoara. We look at religion as a provider of social ties, in terms of messages with political connotations coming from clergy, and of chain reactions inside religious groups. The qualitative research relies on content analysis of documents, and of 30 semi-structured interviews with former participants to the demonstrations. Results point towards a subtle and circumstantial collective religious mobilization before and during the Romanian revolution. Similarities with pilgrimage are related to the presence of a resourceful actor, converting individual into common needs and generating a collective identity. Differences refer to the spiritual vs. political movement, and to the socio-religious experience vs. the secular search for freedom and justice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

16 pages, 1818 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Tamed Mobilization. Marian Messages, Pilgrim Masses and Papal Moderateness in Fatima since Paul VI

by Mariano P. Barbato

Religions 2021, 12(9), 671; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090671 - 24 Aug 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2417

Abstract

Marian apparitions attract modern masses since the 19th century. The radical message of the apparition asking for penitence and the return of public and politics to God resonated well within major parts of Catholicism. While popes kept promoting Marian pilgrimages in order to secure their public and political standing throughout the 20th and 21st century, they tried to control the masses and to attenuate the messages. Particularly since the Second Vatican Council, the popes tamed mobilization. Instead of stirring up the masses, popes kept modest at Marian apparitions sites. A quantitative analysis of the papal documents issued during papal journeys to Fatima, the most political apparition of the 20th century, shows that a modest religious discourse about God and world had been presented instead of promoting the critical messages of the apparition. Following the methodological ideal of parsimony, the analysis concentrates on the most uttered words during the journeys and compares the four pontificates since Paul VI. Instead of stressing the radical message of Fatima, which is introduced in the discussion of the findings, the pontificates share a modest Catholic discourse. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

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17 pages, 309 KiB

Open AccessArticle

From Archangels to Virtual Pilgrims: A Brief History of Papal Digital Mobilization as Soft Power

by Johannes Ludwig Löffler

Religions 2021, 12(8), 657; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080657 - 18 Aug 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2513

Abstract

The perpetual public display of successful mass mobilization and pilgrimage has become a pillar of papal soft power. During the 20th century, the papacy had repeatedly demonstrated its ability to use new technologies for public communication, media content production and mass mobilization. John Paul II endorsed the establishment of the first Vatican website and an official papal e-mail account, which provided Catholics a new form of communication with the Holy Father. During the pontificate of Benedict XVI, the papacy created several Twitter accounts, which would become the backbone of papal digital mobilization. Francis built on the success of his predecessors as he initiated the modernization of the Holy See’s media department. However, with the growth of the Internet and the stress test of the COVID-19 pandemic, the mechanics of mobilization, pilgrimage and power have considerably changed. With the religious role of the popes taken as a given, the paper looks into the history of papal mobilization, the role of the Internet and why it is not used to its full potential yet. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

18 pages, 367 KiB

Open AccessArticle

‘A Most Select Gathering’. Mexican National Pilgrimages to Rome during the Papacy of Leo XIII

by Francisco Javier Ramón Solans

Religions 2021, 12(7), 475; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070475 - 26 Jun 2021

Viewed by 2196

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyse Mexican national pilgrimages to Rome that took place during the pontificate of Leo XIII (1878–1903). These pilgrimages occurred in the context of a global Catholic mobilisation in support of the papacy, during the so-called Roman Question. This paper’s analysis of these pilgrimages draws from historiography about national pilgrimages, as well as studies on Catholic mobilisation in support of the pope in the second half of the nineteenth century. It is fundamentally based on primary sources of an official nature, such as reports and other printed documents produced on the occasion of the pilgrimage. The study’s primary conclusion is that national pilgrimages to Rome had a polysemic character since they brought together various religious and national identities. The pilgrimages contributed simultaneously to reinforcing the link between Catholicism and Mexican national identity and the global dimension of Catholicism and allegiance to the Holy See. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

11 pages, 294 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Geopolitics of Catholic Pilgrimage: On the Double Materiality of (Religious) Politics in the Virtual Age

by Petr Kratochvíl

Religions 2021, 12(6), 443; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12060443 - 16 Jun 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3031

Abstract

This article explores geopolitical aspects of Catholic pilgrimage in Europe. By exploring the representations of pilgrimage on Catholic social media, it shows that the increasing influence of the virtual is accompanied by a particular reassertion of the material aspects of pilgrimage. Two types of Catholic pilgrimage emerge, each with a particular spatial and political orientation. The first type of pilgrimage is predominantly politically conservative, but also spatially static, focusing on objects, be they human bodies or sacred sites. The second type is politically progressive, but also spatially dynamic, stressing pilgrimage as movement or a journey. The classic Turnerian conceptualization of a pilgrimage as a three-phase kinetic ritual thus falls apart, with liminality appropriated by the progressive type and aggregation almost entirely taken over by the conservative, apparitional pilgrimage. As a result, pilgrimage has once again become a geopolitical reflection of the broader ideological contestation both within Christianity and beyond. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

12 pages, 378 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pilgrimage and Religion: Pilgrim Religiosity on the Ways of St. James

by Patrick Heiser

Religions 2021, 12(3), 167; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12030167 - 5 Mar 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5604

Abstract

Pilgrimages on the Ways of St. James are becoming increasingly popular, so the number of pilgrims registered in Santiago de Compostela has been rising continuously for several decades. The large number of pilgrims is accompanied by a variety of motives for a contemporary pilgrimage, whereby religion is only rarely mentioned explicitly. While pilgrimage was originally a purely religious practice, the connection between pilgrimage and religion is less clear nowadays. Therefore, this paper examines whether and in which way religion shows itself in the context of contemporary pilgrimages on the Ways of St. James. For this purpose, 30 in-depth biographical interviews with pilgrims are analyzed from a sociological perspective on religion by using a qualitative content analysis. This analysis reveals that religion is manifested in many ways in the context of contemporary pilgrimages, whereby seven forms of pilgrim religiosity can be distinguished. They have in common that pilgrims shape their pilgrim religiosity individually and self-determined, but in doing so they rely on traditional and institutional forms of religion. Today’s pilgrim religiosity can therefore be understood as an extra-ordinary form of lived religion, whose popularity may be explained by a specific interrelation of individual shaping and institutional assurance of evidence. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

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