Encountering the Sacred: The Debate on Christian Pilgrimage in Late Antiquity (Transformation of the Classical Heritage)

By Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony

This innovative 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, Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony deftly 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, Bitton-Ashkelony offers a nuanced reading of their thinking on the merits and the demerits of pilgrimage, revealing theological and ecclesiastical motivations that have been overlooked, and questioning the long-held assumption of scholars that pilgrimage was only a popular, not an elite, religious practice. In addition to Greek and Latin sources, she includes Syriac material, which allows her to build a rich picture of the emerging theology of landscape that took shape over the fourth to sixth centuries.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520241916
• ISBN13: 9780520241916
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.7" x 9.1"