Spiritual Geographies: Pilgrimage, Sacred Space and Geopolitical Meaning
Spiritual Geographies: Pilgrimage, Sacred Space and Geopolitical Meaning
Author(s): Oana Cogeanu-HaragaSubject(s): Anthropology, Philosophy, Historical Geography, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Comparative Studies of Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Sociology of Religion, Geopolitics
Published by: Institute for the Study of Values and Spirituality
Keywords: pilgrimage; sacred space; spiritual geography; travel writing; ideology;
Summary/Abstract: This article explores pilgrimage as a spiritual practice performed across geopolitical landscapes that are historically layered and ideologically contested. Based on a diachronic reading of three prominent travelogues representative of their historical contexts—Egeria’s Travels (4th century), The Book of Margery Kempe (15th century), and Kathryn Harrison’s The Road to Santiago (2013)—the article argues that pilgrimage persists not because sacred sites themselves remain stable in meaning, but because such places are continuously re-signified through the pilgrims’ embodied movement and textual reconstruction. Across changing historical and geopolitical contexts, pilgrimage emerges as a performative practice that repeatedly re-writes space into meaning, negotiating tensions between spirituality, power and cultural identity.
Journal: MEΘEXIS Journal of Research in Values and Spirituality
- Issue Year: VI/2026
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 54-64
- Page Count: 11
- Language: English
