„Sinnsuche per pedes“ - Pilgern als körperliche Herausforderung und spirituelles Erlebnis ("Search for meaning on foot" - pilgrimage as a physical challenge and spiritual experience) (Gamper M. und Reuter J., 2012)

Type of Publication

Book section

Language

German

Where to Find?

https://www.wanderforschung.de/files/gamper-2012pilgern_1408141124.pdf

Abstract or Summary

Pilgrimage and pilgrimage are more popular than ever in the 21st century. For years now, local pilgrimage offices and places of pilgrimage have been recording rising visitor numbers. Whereas pilgrimages and pilgrimages were long regarded in the common perception pattern as medieval phenomena par excellence, not infrequently synonymous with "devotion to God" and "religious reverence," current practice has largely moved away from this. Not only did many of the most important pilgrimage sites and centers of pilgrimage (Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje) emerge only in the 19th and 20th centuries and are thus places of modernity (Stausberg 2010, p. 46). Pilgrimages are also experiencing an upswing in places where people hardly feel bound by official religious teachings. The Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela, on which masses of people now walk year after year, is considered a typical example here. The pilgrimage route, which lay fallow for many centuries, has only been (re)discovered in recent decades - and not entirely independently of political, cultural and economic motives. It has long since become an interdenominational and interreligious pilgrimage route with a mass tourism infrastructure (Schweizer 2011), on which people of very different colors cavort. Here, especially in the so-called "Holy Years, "1 one still encounters church-organized travel groups who are aware of the cultural-historical significance of the Way of St. James and for whom the apostle's tomb in Santiago de Compostela is the central goal of the journey. But there is also a noticeable increase in the number of pilgrims who, regardless of the church calendar and traditions, make the journey alone or with friends, among them many in search of "spiritual self-discovery" as well as study travelers interested in the country and its people, sports enthusiasts or tourists who simply want to experience a cheap vacation "with a special flair". Thus, contemporary pilgrimage is not a continuation of older patterns of pilgrimage; the numerous souvenir stores along the way or even the standard equipment of many pilgrim hostels with Internet alone testify to this. No wonder, then, that pilgrimage on the Way of St. James and global mass tourism have more in common than it appears in common oppositions of religion and tourism (Stausberg 2010, p. 13). Just a look at the public statistics of the pilgrimage office in Compostela proves the popularity of the Way of St. James. The number of pilgrims increased from approx. (first paragraph of the introduction, translated by DeepL Translator)

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Bibliographical Data

• Author and Editor: Markus Gamper and Julia Reuter
• Title (original): „Sinnsuche per pedes“ - Pilgern als körperliche Herausforderung und spirituelles Erlebnis
• Title in English: "Search for meaning on foot" - pilgrimage as a physical challenge and spiritual experience
• Book series: Sozialwissenschaften und Berufspraxis (SuB)
• Pages: 1-18
• Year: 2012
• Publisher: Springer

English Transcript

Partial translation using DeepL Translator.