The ancient practice of pilgrimage has become increasingly popular in recent decades, in both traditional and new forms. Pilgrimage also provides fertile space for teaching. Especially with this latter development in mind, Pilgrimage as Spiritual Practice brings together original essays that offer useful resources for teachers and guides who lead groups in both academic and non-academic settings. The central aim of this volume is to provide a curated handbook of resources to aid the study and practice of pilgrimage for pilgrimage leaders and pilgrims. Contributions to the volume were created based on the premise that pilgrimage is a spiritual practice and that those who engage in pilgrimage do so as whole persons and thus will be challenged physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. The volume has two parts with six chapters each. The first part examines methods, key texts, and concepts. These chapters provide various entry points into the pilgrimage phenomenon: philosophy, theology, anthropology, psychology, medieval literature, art history. Though these chapters will focus on method and concept, they will make use of examples taken from concrete experience. The second part of the volume addresses specific practices, contexts, and phenomena: the Camino de Santiago, pilgrimage in Islam and Christianity, pilgrimage in India, pilgrimage in East Asia (Shikoku), pilgrimage in the wilderness, and urban pilgrimage.
Jeffrey Bloechl is associate professor of philosophy at Boston College and honorary professor of philosophy at the Australian Catholic University. He specializes in philosophy of religion, contemporary European philosophy (phenomenology and psychoanalysis), and the relation between Christian theology and philosophy. He is the author of Liturgy of the Neighbor: Emmanuel Levinas and the Religion of Responsibility (Duquesne University Press, 2000) and the editor or coauthor of fifteen book volumes or journal issues. He is the founding editor of Levinas Studies. An Annual Review (Duquesne University Press), and of the series Thresholds in Philosophy and Theology (University of Notre Dame Press). Andre Brouillette, SJ, is assistant professor of systematic and spiritual theology at Boston College. He is a Roman Catholic priest and a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He specializes in early modern spirituality and in the theology of the Holy Spirit and salvation. He is the author of Le lieu du salut: Une pneumatologie d'incarnation chez Therese d'Avila (Cerf, 2014), published in English as Teresa of Avila, the Holy Spirit, and the Place of Salvation (Paulist, 2021), and The Pilgrim Paradigm: Faith in Movement (working title), a monograph on the theology of pilgrimage to be published next year by Paulist Press.
Introduction Part 1: Approaches and Methods The Phenomenology of Pilgrimage The Theology of Pilgrimage Psychology and Pilgrimage Anthropology of Pilgrimage Medieval Literature and Pilgrimage Art and Pilgrimage Part 2: Applications and Practices On the Camino de Santiago On Pilgrimage in India On Pilgrimage in Islam and Christianity On Shikoku pilgrimage Pilgrimage in wilderness Flint, on Urban Pilgrimage Bibliography
