We are seeking contributions to a volume exploring pilgrimage in a global context from the mid-fifteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. This volume is under consideration for publication in the book series Reflections on Early Modernity / Réflexions sur la première modernité published by the journal Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme. Whether discussing visitations of local shrines or the great trans-regional events like the Hajj and pilgrimages to faraway lands, the rite of pilgrimage kept believers on the move, making pilgrims one of the most visible manifestations of mobility and religious devotion. At the same time, they served as central agents in reconstituting religious themes and notions throughout the early modern period. Pilgrimage was an intensely social and cultural event, as groups of various travelers encountered each other, as well as other cultures, and experienced new modes of living and other ways of worshiping. As a popular rite, it was also an economic driver of local economies, providing services and goods for travelers, which served the interests of powerful authorities. After 1450, the expansion of maritime trading routes, wars, religious change and a sharp rise and legitimization of curiosity, were among the many forces that worked the extend the global reach of many faiths. These forces also reshaped the practice of pilgrimage in the process.
It is in this context of an increasingly interconnected and changing early modern world that this volume will offer a forum for an investigation of early modern pilgrimage in a comparative context. We are seeking contributors working from the perspective of diverse disciplines (e. art history, history, literature, anthropology), religious traditions (ie. Buddhism, Shintoism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity) and regional contexts who could engage with one or more of the following themes:
Pilgrimage and Identity
Journeys of pilgrimage created a space where encounters took place among pilgrims themselves, especially those who traveled in a group; between pilgrims and people or communities they met on their way, especially the communities who lived next to the holy places - the destination of the journey; an encounter with the holy sites; as well as with the pilgrim's own self. These encounters created many opportunities for the re-examination of the pilgrims' boundaries of identity - religious and cultural - as they were used to mark them in their countries of origin. What was the contribution of these encounters to shaping a pilgrim's religious identity? Or the identity of a pilgrim's community of origin? Or alternatively: How the pilgrim's boundaries of identity are reflected in his description of the "other communities", of the holy sites, of the journey?
These are only a few possible questions to be discussed.
Pilgrimage and the Construction of Power
Just as the purposes and motives of pilgrimage vary, so do the relationships between pilgrims and political rulers. Many institutions connected with sacred travel have been controlled or sponsored by such authorities, who could collect contributions from pilgrims visiting the shrines within their lands while promoting their reputations as devout leaders. How did these institutions used pilgrimage to build their power? How did it work when rulers and pilgrims were not of the same religion or culture? How did it work when the holy site was worshiped by more than one religion?
Pilgrimages have also prompted behaviors that have proved deeply threatening to political and religious authorities. How did the authorities react to the pilgrims' search for divine favor? How did they react to their temporary release from everyday life, and the volatile potential of a mass movement of people?
The Practice of Pilgrimage (ie. liturgy, relics, markets, hospices)
Although pilgrimage is considered to be a journey taken for spiritual reasons and it usually entails some separation from the everyday world of home, it creates a physical world of its own, not to mention pilgrimage sites tend to have a material focus. Pilgrimage involves, first and foremost, a movement across physical and cultural landscapes, that raises the questions of: routs, vehicles, inns, money-changers, translators, or guides. What are the souvenirs, or relics, that were being transported home? Their importance for the pilgrim's community? What were the cultural performances, or rituals, whether at the holy sites or in social encounters, that pilgrims were involved with?
Shrines and their Replicas
The phenomenon of establishing or creating equivalents to sacred sites – and occasionally, to an entire city (Jerusalem, Rome), is known in more than a few contexts. It can be a second burial site of a holy person, a sacred tradition being celebrated in more than one site, etc. Documenting the origin and the replicas of a holy site is one goal, yet another will be to discuss what makes a site an original? And what makes it a replica? What were the historical contexts, and purpose for their creation? And how did they affect pilgrimage routes and practices?
Pilgrimage Testimonies: Written and Visual/Pictoral
The testimonies (written, visual, pictoral, other) created by pilgrims testifies to the various ways in which the physical movement of pilgrims between places and cultures shaped the intellectual and material cultures of communities in both the pilgrims' places of origin and the places they visited. These testimonies also interacted with, and became vessels of, myriad intellectual and other traditions (scientific, theological, literary, other), traditions that during the early modern period were shifting in the ways that also came to reshape common perceptions of the world in which pilgrims lived including conceptions of the sacred.
Instructions for the Proposals
Each chapter should address some of the questions raised in at least one of the emphases outlined above. The maximum word length for each article is 10,000 words, including all notes and images. To submit a proposal for an article, please send an abstract in either English or French of no more than 600 words and a brief c.v. to Dr. Orit Ramon oritra@openu.ac.il no later than March 31, 2024. You will hear by April 1, 2024 if your proposal to contribute a chapter to the volume has been accepted. We will accept proposals from authors at any stage from advanced graduate students to senior scholars.
For questions, please feel free to send an email to any of the editors:
Dr. Orit Ramon, Dept of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, Open University of Israel (oritra@openu.ac.il )
Dr. Megan Armstrong, Dept McMaster University, Canada (marmstr@mcmaster.ca )
Dr. Yamit Rachman-Schirre, Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East (yamit.rachman@mail.huji.ac.il )
Dr. Orit Ramon, Dept of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, Open University of Israel (oritra@openu.ac.il )
Dr. Megan Armstrong, Dept McMaster University, Canada (marmstr@mcmaster.ca )
Dr. Yamit Rachman-Schirre, Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East (yamit.rachman@mail.huji.ac.il )
