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Full-Text Articles in Tourism and Travel
Interpreting Contemporary Pilgrimage As Spiritual Journey Or Aesthetic Tourism Along The Appalachian Trail, Kip Redick
Interpreting Contemporary Pilgrimage As Spiritual Journey Or Aesthetic Tourism Along The Appalachian Trail, Kip Redick
International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage and tourism can be interpreted as overlapping travel experiences. Given all the changes mass transportation and communication technologies have brought, understanding the phenomenon of pilgrimage becomes fraught with ambiguity. Is pilgrimage better understood as a tourist excursion that affords instances of religious devotion? Pilgrimage routes and long distance scenic trails have their aesthetic appeal, which pilgrims and tourists enjoy. Is there a difference in the way these two groups walk these trails that become manifest through aesthetic experiences and encounters? Looking at long distance hiking on the Appalachian Trail as spiritual journey opens up a reinterpretation of both pilgrimage …
The Possibility Of Pilgrimage In A Scientific World, Stephen F. Haller
The Possibility Of Pilgrimage In A Scientific World, Stephen F. Haller
International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage
The paper is a philosophical argument about whether a pilgrimage can be meaningful in a scientific age. Since a scientific world-view rules out many ideas which are traditionally associated with pilgrimage, such as miracles and the effectiveness of prayer, it seems that pilgrimage might be a practice inconsistent with the modern scientific age. Attempts have been made to reconcile this conflict by arguing that science and religion do not conflict, but are non-overlapping spheres of inquiry. Thus, it is possible to make sense of pilgrimage in a scientific age, if one strips their pilgrimage of all aspects to which science …