Can Pilgrimage Fail? Intent, Efficacy, and Evangelical Trips to the Holy Land
Many scholars have debated the potential results of pilgrimage, but few have tracked how pre-trip goals actually relate to post-trip outcomes. Based on research with US evangelicals, this article argues that, despite being confronted with the possibility of disrupted meaning, nearly every pilgrim co...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2016]
|
| In: |
Journal of contemporary religion
Year: 2016, Volume: 31, Issue: 3, Pages: 393-408 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Palestine
/ Evangelical movement
/ Pilgrimage
/ Failure
|
| Further subjects: | B
Holy Land
B Pilgrimage B Evangelical B Israel B evangelical Christian B Failure B tour |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Publisher) |
| Summary: | Many scholars have debated the potential results of pilgrimage, but few have tracked how pre-trip goals actually relate to post-trip outcomes. Based on research with US evangelicals, this article argues that, despite being confronted with the possibility of disrupted meaning, nearly every pilgrim comes to see the trip as a success. To understand why, I draw on studies that frame Christian rituals as processes that are partial and in flux. Firstly, I explore how gendered notions of relationality affect perceptions of efficacy and lead to multiple goal-setting. Secondly, I show how the journey is couched within broader epistemologies that define a Christian life as incremental improvements, where one grows' with God. Thus the meaning making associated with pilgrimage is never fully complete, but is compelled into a future where further interpretations and presumed successes are inchoate. Ultimately, the belief in future meaning is as importantperhaps more sothan immediate ritual success. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1469-9419 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of contemporary religion
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2016.1206254 |
