A groundbreaking reframing of religious pilgrimage
Pious processions. Sites of miraculous healing. Journeys to far-away sacred places. These are what are usually called to mind when we think of religious pilgrimage. Yet while pilgrimage can include journeying to the heart of sacred shrines, it can also occur in apparently mundane places. Indeed, not everyone has the resources or mobility to take part in religiously inspired movement to foreign lands, and some find meaning in religious movement closer to home and outside of officially sanctioned practices. Powers of Pilgrimage argues that we must question the universality of Western assumptions of what religion is and where it should be located, including the notion that "genuine" pilgrimage needs to be associated with discrete, formally recognized forms of religiosity.
This necessary volume makes the case for expanding our gaze to reconsider the salience, scope, and scale of contemporary forms of pilgrimage and pilgrimage-related activity. It shows that we need to reflect on how pilgrimage sites, journeys, rituals, stories, and metaphors are entangled with each other and with wider aspects of people's lives, ranging from an action as trivial as a stroll down the street to the magnitude of forced migration to another country or continent.
Offering a new theoretical lexicon and framework for exploring human pilgrimage, Powers of Pilgrimage presents a broad overview of how we can understand pilgrimage activity and proposes that it should be understood not solely as going to, staying at, and leaving a sacred place, but also as occurring in ordinary times, places, and practices.

About the Author
Simon Coleman is Chancellor Jackman Professor at the Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, and author of Pilgrimage: Past and Present in the World Religions and The Globalisation of Charismatic Christianity.

Reviews

An impressive overview of the state of the field of pilgrimage studies. Coleman does an excellent job of putting scholars in context and in dialogue with each other, from anthropologists Victor and Edith Turner to cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall. Coleman presents a complex view of pilgrimage that opens up new possibilities for study and analysis. . . . This book will be an invaluable resource for scholars of ritual, pilgrimage, religion, geography, politics, and beyond.

-- Sarah Pike, California State University, Chico

A lucid, wide-reaching, and brilliant book that provides us with a valuable new theoretical lexicon and framework for exploring human pilgrimage. Coleman's attention to mobilities, context at multiple scales, emergence, uncertainties, and ambiguities further illustrates the relevance of political economy and social justice for pilgrimage studies. This volume will have a major and lasting impact on Pilgrimage Studies and beyond.

-- Sharon R. Roseman, co-editor of The Tourism Imaginary and Pilgrimages to the Edges of the World
Powers of Pilgrimage is an important book for scholars of pilgrimage and religion, but also for scholars of culture, mobility, economy, and geography. The book provides an impressive overview and analysis of the field as well as an impassioned call to expand the field's approaches and subjects. -- Melissa Coles * The Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism *

Coleman's book is an extremely worthwhile read, bound to leave its
mark on the anthropology of religion and beyond.It successfully sets an agenda
of interest to anyone, or any discipline engaged in the study of religion.

-- Maja Balle and Bjorn Thomassen * Social Sciences and Missions *
Simon Coleman's book presents a much-needed and long overdue exploration of the richness of pilgrimage research... Power of Pilgrimage: Religion in a World of Movement is a compelling and influential book that establishes parameters for comparative research in pilgrimage studies. * Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion *
Powers of Pilgrimage is an insightful voyage into the complexities and intricacies of pilgrim practices in various parts of the world today...Coleman's book is an extremely worthwhile read, bound to leave its mark on the anthropology of religion and beyond. * Social Sciences and Missions *
Powers of Pilgrimage makes an enormous contribution to studies of pilgrimage by reframing and expanding the field...The book provides an impressive overview and analysis of the field as well as an impassioned call to expand the field's approaches and subjects, including by rejecting false binaries between "religious" and "secular" spaces, peoples, and practices. * Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism *



Book Information
ISBN 9781479811946
Author Simon Coleman
Format Paperback
Page Count 344
Imprint New York University Press
Publisher New York University Press
Weight(grams) 513g