holy land pilgrimage
Since the 1950s, millions of U.S. Christians have traveled to the Holy Land to visit the places where Jesus lived and died.
Why do pilgrims choose to journey halfway around the world?
How do they react to what they encounter and remember the trip upon return?
Why do pilgrims choose to journey halfway around the world?
How do they react to what they encounter and remember the trip upon return?
During my multiyear study of holy land pilgrimage, I worked closely with trip participants to get a sense of the experience was like for them. I also contextualized these trips in the American context to ask how they illuminate important tensions in U.S. Christianity between material evidence and transcendent divinity, commoditization and religious authority, domestic relationships and global travel.
Some of my favourite pieces to emerge from this research included my studies of souvenirs and ritual 'failure'. Read more about these & other articles here. My book, Walking Where Jesus Walked, is also discussed in more detail here.
I've published a few open access pieces, which you can find under the tab magazines & online.
"Notes on Pilgrimage Studies" considers why so few studies explore the aftermath of the trip. You can read it in Practical Matters. Extended versions of this piece are forthcoming in two volumes with Routledge, which will appear on the Articles page when they go to press. "Commerce, Commercialism, Commercialization" on Sacred Matters explores one of my abiding fields of interest: how Christians spend and talk about money.
Some of my favourite pieces to emerge from this research included my studies of souvenirs and ritual 'failure'. Read more about these & other articles here. My book, Walking Where Jesus Walked, is also discussed in more detail here.
I've published a few open access pieces, which you can find under the tab magazines & online.
"Notes on Pilgrimage Studies" considers why so few studies explore the aftermath of the trip. You can read it in Practical Matters. Extended versions of this piece are forthcoming in two volumes with Routledge, which will appear on the Articles page when they go to press. "Commerce, Commercialism, Commercialization" on Sacred Matters explores one of my abiding fields of interest: how Christians spend and talk about money.