Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture

by Victor Turner, Edith Turner, Deborah Ross

Overview

First published in 1978, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture is a classic work examining the theological doctrines, popular notions, and corresponding symbols and images promoting and sustaining Christian pilgrimage. The book examines two major aspects of pilgrimage practice: the significance of context, or the theological conditions giving rise to pilgrimage and the folk traditions enabling worshippers to absorb the meaning of the event; and the images and symbols embodying the experience of pilgrimage and transmitting its visions in varying ways.

Retelling its own tales of "mere mortals" confronted by potent visions, such as the man Juan Diego who found redemption with the Lady of Guadalupe and the poor French shepherdess Bernadette whose encounter with the Lady at Lourdes inspired Christians across the globe, this text treats religious visions as both paradox and empowering phenomena, tying them explicitly to the times in which they occurred. Offering vivid vignettes of social history, it extends their importance beyond the realm of the religious to our own conceptions of reality.

Extensively revised throughout, this edition includes a new introduction by the theologian Deborah Ross situating the book within the work of Victor and Edith Turner and among the movements of contemporary culture. She addresses the study's legacy within the discipline, especially its hermeneutical framework, which introduced a novel method of describing and interpreting pilgrimage. She also credits the Turners with cementing the link between mysticism, popular devotion, and Christian culture, as well as their recognition of the relationship between pilgrimage and the deep spiritual needs of human beings. She concludes with various critiques of the Turners' work and suggests future directions for research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231157919
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	11/08/2011
Series:	Columbia Classics in Religion
Edition description:	with a new introduction
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Victor Turner (1920–1983) was professor of religion and anthropology at the University of Chicago. He authored many books, including The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society, and On the Edge of the Bush: Anthropology As Experience.

Edith Turner is a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Virginia and editor of the journal Anthropology and Humanism.

Deborah Ross is a theologian and writer living in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback AdditionPreface1 - Introduction: Pilgrimage as Myth and History2 - Mexican Pilgrimages: Myth and History3 - St. Patrick's Purgatory: Religion and Nationalism in an Archaic Pilgrimage4 - Iconophily and Iconoclasm in Marian Pilgrimage3 - Locality and Universality in Medieval Pilgrimages6 - Apparitions, Messages, and Miracles: Postindustrial Marian Pilgrimage7 - ConclusionsAppendix AAppendix BBibliographyIndex

Columbia University Press

What People are Saying About This

Simon Coleman

Image and Pilgrimage is a landmark in the anthropological study ofpilgrimage: indeed, it formed the field. We still have not fullyappreciated all that it has to say about embodiment, movement, andmateriality. But even more than a study of Christian pilgrimage, it isalso a book about how to do anthropology, and how to trace theintersections between history, religious experience and popularculture.

— Simon Coleman, Chancellor Jackman Chaired Professor at the Department and Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto

Editorial Reviews

Like Turner's other books, this one admirably fuses a symbolic, cognitive approach to culture with a social functionalist one. Like his other books as well, this one is as accessible to novice undergraduates as to specialists in anthropology and religion.

CHOICE

This book is a fine combination of scholarship and readability. The Turners contend that pilgrimage is a major socioreligious phenomenon and thus worthy of anthropological study.... This fine book deserves a wide readership.

International Journal of Comparative Sociology

Like Turner's other books, this one admirably fuses a symbolic, cognitive approach to culture with a social functionalist one. Like his other books as well, this one is as accessible to novice undergraduates as to specialists in anthropology and religion.

Choice

This book constitutes an important foreshadowing of issues that have become prominent in more recent anthropology.

Culture

This book is a fine combination of scholarship and readability. The Turners contend that pilgrimage is a major socioreligious phenomenon and thus worthy of anthropological study.... This fine book deserves a wide readership.

International Journal of Comparative Sociology