Tourism and Pilgrimage: a question of motivation

One thing that I am concerned about in my studies on pilgrimage is the materialistic undertones that this practice can be painted with.  In my previous post I spoke of pilgrimage as the search for the transcendent - that which is greater than oneself.  This seems to be a grand and noble purpose, one that surely resonates with many would-be pilgrims out there.  Yet, I have discovered that if I type the word "pilgrimage" into the Google search engine, I end up with something that looks something more like a tourism guidebook 9 times out of 10.  Why is this?

Perhaps a look into the traditional, academic definition of pilgrimage would be helpful. The Encyclopedia of Early Christianity describes it as a "journey taken as an expression of religious devotion to a place believed to be especially sacred or holy" (Ferguson, 734). Penelope Dransart helps expand the traditional definition of pilgrimage by listing 6 common types of pilgrimage: (328-329)

1. The devotional pilgrimage: an encounter with, and veneration of, a shrine divinity, holy person, or symbols.  Examples include Christian pilgrimages to the holy land.
2. The instrumental pilgrimage: the pilgrim travels to a shrine for a specific reason.  Examples include pilgrimages to shrines for healing.
3. The normative pilgrimage: a part of the calendrical life cycle of a person.  Examples include the annual community pilgrimages that take place in Latin American Catholic traditions.
4. The obligatory pilgrimage: an imposed pilgrimage, like the penitential pilgrimages that used to be proscribed as a form of punishment in the middle ages.
5. The wandering pilgrimage: does not have a destination, but the pilgrim sets out to obtain some spiritual illumination or to emulate a holy person who did similarly.
6. The initiatory pilgrimage: intended to change the social status of the pilgrim.  An example would be the Native American vision quest, where one travels and fasts to the point of instigating a hallucinogenic experience in order to be recognized as an adult within the community.

I find these categories helpful for understanding the traditional role of pilgrimage in different cultures.  They certainly do exemplify the point that there can be many different types of pilgrimage!  And yet these categories make pilgrimage seem easily compartmentalized and reproduced, as though one could sell the experience.

In medieval times Christian pilgrimage was regarded as an important practice for the sanctification of the soul.  It was thought that if one could go visit the places where holy people lived or died, a little of that holiness might rub off on the pilgrim.   Daniel Taylor writes that "the greatest danger of pilgrimage, always, is the temptation to live off someone else's experience with transcendence... We want to materialize and quantify the holy so we can keep an eye on it" (Taylor, 17).  This approach threatens to paint holiness as a commodity, something that can be obtained if a person can be the first one to visit all the holy sites. Eugene Peterson challenges this understanding with his definition of 'holy':  "the all-encompassing, all-embracing life of God that transforms us into a uniquely formed and set-apart people...It is something lived” (Peterson, 127). 

So why do you go on pilgrimage?  Is it to acquire something: to treat the pilgrimage itself as a form of currency for an experience of transcendence; something perhaps to write about in your journal?  Or, are you going because you want to be changed - to be challenged to the very core of your being to live a different, deeper and fuller life that is uniquely inspired by the transcendent God?  One way is totally selfish and plays into a tourism mindset, traveling for the sake of broadening my own experience.  The other requires sacrifice as one surrenders the self to a calling that is beyond what they can imagine, or control.

Jim Forest provides a description of pilgrimage that really resonates with me:

You can walk to some great shrine on a journey that takes weeks or months and fail to become a pilgrim.  Walking a pilgrimage route, wearing a pilgrim's badge, and sleeping in pilgrim hostels are not what make a pilgrim.  Pilgrimage is more an attitude than an act... Pilgrimage is a conscious act of seeking a more vital awareness of God's living presence.  As was said in medieval times, "If you do not travel with the King whom you seek, you will not find him at the end of your journey." (Forest, 13, italics my own)

I write these things not to downplay the importance of shrines and holy places in the experience of pilgrimage.  I write this so that we can examine our reasons, our motivations, behind taking the journey.

Looking for the Transcendent

"I'm a bit stuck on a paper topic," I admitted to a co-worker when she asked me how my schoolwork was going.  "What is the paper on?" she asked.  I told her.  "Pilgrimage?  Isn't that like with poor people?" she asked innocently.  I couldn't help but laugh.  I went on trying to explain this mysterious concept to her, memories from my reading echoing in my mind.

Pilgrimage is a type of travel that has an inward meaning,  Daniel Taylor calls it "physical travel with a spiritual destination" (Taylor, 16).  The pilgrim may not know or even understand their goal; it may be shrouded in complete mystery.  And yet, there is a sense of anticipation that fuels pilgrimage, a sense of inner expectation and hope.  The pilgrimage, in truth, is not about the destination at all.  It is about the journey.  It is not about the how, the when or the where.  It is about the why.  Why are you on the journey that you are on?  What are you hoping for?  Every pilgrim is looking for some experience with the transcendent - with that which is greater than themselves.  They know that there is something more to their lives than what they left behind, that is why they are on the journey.  They want to experience that greater thing with hope that it will give insight, purpose and meaning to the life that they currently live.

Pilgrimage, then, involves a shedding of the world that we leave behind.  It means stepping out of the comfortable box and role that we have been relegated to in daily life.  It means giving up your bed and the comforts of home; it means leaving the family and friends that command your attention and provide that sense of belonging and stability; it means giving up your job for a time and abandoning the schedule that has so predominantly rhythmed your life.  When all of this is taken away what is left?  When all the trappings of our lives are shed for the journey where will we actually find ourselves?  Will we be able to cling to the hope of the transcendent, or will we flee back to the comforts of daily life? 

Some might regard this talk of sacrifice as being rather extreme for a description of pilgrimage, but the ultimate purpose of pilgrimage is extreme.  As Taylor writes, "extremism is simply a method for searching for what is real" (Taylor, 32).  The pilgrim isn't looking for some feel-good experience, something fluffy and fleeting; the pilgrim is looking for something tangible, something that gives their lives meaning and purpose and roots them to this place called Earth and to this life.  They are looking for a meaningful and profound experience of realness that will change them.

With this in mind, Christian pilgrimage takes on an even deeper meaning. The search for the transcendent becomes a search for the God of Christian faith.  Scott O'Brien calls it "the search for the Holy in the process of active remembrance" (O'Brien, 39). Christian George writes that "[pilgrimage] moves us from certainty to dependence, it helps us discover God's involvement in human history, it challenges and stimulates our faith, and it invigorates us to be like our Lord in thought, word, deed and devotion. Pilgrimage is an outward demonstration of an inward calling - to follow Christ, wherever the steps may lead" (George, 25).  Christian pilgrimage, then, is not an isolated experience.  It is an experience that is linked to tradition, to history, to community, to Christ, and to faith.  Like others, the Christian journeys seeking the transcendent, but perhaps unlike others, the Christian knows the one whom they are seeking.

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I finished wrapping up my explanation to my co-worker and she stood there thinking.  "So then," she ventured, "your trip to this city, isn't that a pilgrimage? You said you came because of God."  I sat there for a moment somewhat stunned.  "I never thought about it that way before," I said, "but you're right."  I had come to the city blindly searching for the direction that God had for my life, trusting that he would lead me to the destination I needed. And He did.  Ever since I got here God has provided everything: first a church, then a job, then a place to live and then He led me to the school where I am studying now.  He has provided for me time and time again, sometimes uprooting me from my stability to take a new risky venture - a new home, a new job, a new church.  And yet, as I undertake this journey, I have experienced both Him and His faithfulness anew in so many ways.  Yes, the physical journey I took to come here was a pilgrimage, but it is not a pilgrimage that is over yet.  The journey I am on has a spiritual destination, only I have no idea about what that destination is.  My only hope is that in the process of the journey I will somehow experience the transcendent and come to know that which is truly real.

Introduction to a Project

For a long time I have dreamt about embarking on a long journey across my native homeland of Canada.  I want to sink myself into the history and spirituality of the myriad of people that comprises this great mosaic.  I want to be able to meet the people, talk to them, visit places of historical importance, and learn more about the common ground that unites us and defines us.  As I have contemplated this dream, I have recognized that this is not a journey to be taken lightly.  This is a journey that will require a lot of planning and foresight.  This is a journey that has the potential to stretch me to the limits of who I am as a person.  It is a journey that could stretch me to the limits of my faith.

As I pondered the particular consequences that this journey could have on my life, I came to the conclusion that this trip was not going to be some average tourist excursion.  A tourist goes to take pictures of an experience.  My trip will not allow me to be a bystander though; it will insist that I change deep down inside who I am as a person.  A pilgrim goes to be changed.  The journey I want to undertake is, at its core, a pilgrimage.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a woman in church and she asked me about what I was doing in school.  I began to tell her about the project I was working for in my guided study on pilgrimage.  "It's strange," I mused as I explained, "the more I read, the more I realize that people like to use the word 'pilgrimage' a lot.  They use phrases like "pilgrimage of the heart," and "pilgrimage through the Bible with my small group," or even "my pilgrimage to the Mall of America," but they all mean different things.  We like to use the word 'pilgrimage', but I think we do not always know what it means."  She pondered this statement for a moment and then said, "You're right.  Now that I think about it, I have no idea what that word means." 

I'm not ashamed to admit that I don't really know the meaning of the word either.  That is why I started this blog project.  What is pilgrimage?  What does it mean?  When I think of pilgrimage I think of a journey, but what sets the pilgrim's journey apart from every other kind of journey out there?  There are many kinds of journeys in our lives. Some of them are outward, like journeying to another country as a tourist or missionary, or taking a bus ride to go to work.  Other journeys are inward, such as the slow process of maturity from youth to adulthood, or the journey through the pain of losing a loved one.  The word 'pilgrimage' has been applied to many such inward and outward situations.  There is also pilgrimage in its more traditional sense: the medieval pilgrim travelling from Rome to Jerusalem to see the birthplace of Jesus; the visit to the shrine of some great saint; the walking of a path that many other pilgrims have walked before, in an effort to experience just even a small part of what they did.

All of the great religions of the world have held the discipline of pilgrimage to be of vital importance.  Thousands of years ago, Jewish pilgrimage was expressed in the journey to Jerusalem for the Passover meal once a year.  Buddhist pilgrimage started with the visitation to the four places marking the life and death of the great Master, and was fully expressed in the wandering lifestyle of its monks.  In Islam the Hajj, the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca once during a person’s lifetime, is recognized as one of the five main pillars of Muslim faith.  Christianity itself initially borrowed from the practices of its parent faith, Judaism, but the practice of pilgrimage grew as it began to recognize its own saints and holy places.

With all of these perspectives to sift through, I find myself recognizing that there can be no single meaning for the word “pilgrimage.”  It exists within a thousand different contexts and circumstances.  For the purposes of this blog, however, I will be directing my discussion towards the physical practice of pilgrimage as a Christian within a modern context.  I want to understand what the practice of pilgrimage means for me now, a Christian living in 21^st century Canada.  This is not to say there will be no discussion of history; not at all, for one needs to understand their past in order to have a clear perspective on the present.

My approach to this blog will be both topical and reflective.  I will be interacting with subject matter from the research I am doing, not only presenting it, but also responding to it on a personal level.  To keep up an academic style to this blog, however, I will be posting a bibliography of resources that I have read so far on this topic at the bottom of this blog - a list that may be expanded upon as time goes on.