Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture - Blog #2

Classification of Pilgrimage

In the classification of pilgrimage, the book identifies four main types, the first two of which occur in all the historical religions:

1. Prototypical Pilgrimages:

These types of pilgrimages that were documented and established by the founder of a historical religion, by his disciples, or by important national evangelists of his faith. This pilgrimage dramatically manifests itself in its symbolism, charter narratives, ecclesiastical structure, and general form of international repute. Prototypical pilgrimages must be distinguished from archaic pilgrimages.

2. Archaic Pilgrimages:

These pilgrimages are pilgrimages which bear quite evident traces of syncretism with other religious beliefs and symbols. Some examples of this type of pilgrimage is Glastonbury in Englands Somerset, with its continuing Celtic pagan overtone. 

Within the Christian tradition, it is possible to distinguish two more types:

3. Medieval Pilgrimages:

These are pilgrimages originating, roughly, in the period A.D 500-1400. This type of pilgrimage was best known in the popular and literary traditions of the Christian world originated in the European Middle Ages and take their tone from the theological and philosophical emphases of that epoch.

4. Modern Pilgrimage:

In tone, these pilgrimages are actually anitmodern, since they usually begin with an apparition, or vision, and they assert that miracles do happen. This, as the book puts it, is a genus of pilgrimage which has grown steadily in the post-Tridentine period of European Catholicism, particularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These pilgrimages are characterized by a highly devotional tone and the fervent personal piety of their adherents.

For years pilgrimages have been a part of history and culture. I had never thought of their being different types until reading this passage in the book. I found it very interesting that we can use these different types of pilgrimage in terms of history and look back and understand why people made these pilgrimages. I have to wonder though, how has pilgrimage changed? Are we still considered to be a part of modern pilgrimage today?