Encountering the Sacred: The Debate on Christian Pilgrimage in Late Antiquity Volume 38 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520241916)

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.

Author: Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony
ISBN-10: 0520241916
ISBN-13: 9780520241916
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 12/30/2005
Pages: 270
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.14h x 6.68w x 0.90d