Jessica Blanton: Image and Pilgrimage 2 (March 4, 2010)

The book focuses on Christian pilgrimages, but mentions pagan pilgrimages as well. On page 17, the authors begin classification of pilgrimages. The first is a pilgrimage that was started by the founder of a religion or of the first disciples (prototypical pilgrimages). The second classification is of “pilgrimages which bear quite evident traces of syncreticism with older religious beliefs and symbols… We call these ambiguous and syncretic pilgrimages archaic pilgrimages.” The third are pilgrimages that began in the European Middle Ages, and the last classification is of pilgrimages that began in the 19th and early 20th centuries. All types of pilgrimage classifications are Christian or some other type of specific religion in nature.
What about pilgrimages that do not fall in one of these categories, such as the Appalachian Trail? The trail has no Christian or religious origin, but it is treated as a pilgrimage all the same. People come to walk the trail in order to gain something they feel that their life is missing, to find answers, or just because they want to mark a major mile-stone in their life. I think that pilgrimages can be more than simply religious pilgrimages. Even the pilgrimage of St. John in northern Spain shows that not everyone has to have religious motivations in order to gain something from a pilgrimage (even though that particular pilgrimage falls under one of the four classifications in the book).