Places of Pilgrimage

Examination Thesis from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,5 (B), University of Osnabrück (FB Anglistics), course: Exams, language: English, abstract: Pilgrimage, usually seen within a strictly religious context, can be more usefully viewed as a voyage motivated by emotion, a search for meaning and a craving to express one's community of belief at a special place. Therefore, the particular place is a location of spiritual union where pilgrims share transcendental experience and/or proximity to a divinity, human being or sacred event. Naturally, pilgrimage performed for religious reasons has a traditional character, but one should not assume mistakenly that sacred journeys will disappear because science and technology are expanding. Actually, our ?computer age? might increase spiritual actions and initiate an even greater longing for religious devotion. One of the main questions I will work on deals with this issue. A commonly prevalent perception still associates pilgrimage with traditional cultures and people in the ?Old World? of Europe. This shallow view does not account for the complexity of this devout act, which includes not only pilgrimage to conventional sites but also that stemming from various individual motivations....