Encountering the Sacred: The Debate on Christian Pilgrimage in Late Antiquity
Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony
Abstract
This study sheds new light on one of the most spectacular changes to occur in late antiquity—the rise of pilgrimage all over the Christian world—by setting the phenomenon against the wide background of the political and theological debates of the time. Asking how the emerging notion of a sacred geography challenged the leading intellectuals and ecclesiastical authorities, the book reshapes our understanding of early Christian mentalities by unraveling the process by which a territory of grace became a territory of power. Examining ancient writers' responses to the rising practice of pilgrimage ... More
Keywords: late antiquity, rise of pilgrimage, Christian world, sacred geography, early Christian mentalities, territory of grace, territory of power, ancient writers, religious practice, theology of landscape
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2005 | Print ISBN-13: 9780520241916 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: March 2012 | DOI:10.1525/california/9780520241916.001.0001 |
