In this cultural anthropological study of Reformed Protestantism, Neville argues that the Catholic custom of making pilgrimages to sacred spots has been replaced by the custom of "reunion"--church homecomings, family reunions, cemetery days, and camp meetings--a part of an institutionalized pilgrimage complex.

Values-rich journeys can be described as pilgrimage, spiritual travel, personal heritage tourism, holistic tourism, and valuistic journeys. There are many motivations for undertaking these journeys; the most important being personal values, life experience, personal and social identity, lifestyle, social and cultural influence. This book presents contributions that address pilgrim motivation, identity and values as they are shaped by the broader sociological, psychological, cultural and environmental perspectives. The focus of the book is the travellers themselves and their inner world through the lens of their pilgrimage. The research presented focuses on the typology of pilgrim journeys as ways in which identity and values are presented to a post-modern consumer society, providing interesting and challenging perspectives on the identity of pilgrims in the 21st century.

This book explores the evaluations made by religious groups and individuals about the potential of public spheres for religious practice, focussing upon public religion in societies of the Asia-Pacific. Across this region we observe a resurgence of religious traditions, increasing mediatisation of religion, and an inward turn toward conservative political programs. Against this background, relations between religion and public domains are critical influences upon civic inclusion and equal citizenship. In contrast to conventional approaches to religion and public life that focus upon the public potential of religion, chapter authors focus upon the religious potential of public domains, taking the perspectives of religious actors as their points of departure. The book’s chapters capture the dynamic nexus between religion and politics in Asia-Pacific public spheres: why would Indonesia’s minority Shiite movement strive to develop a public profile in a national environment where it attracts widespread disapproval? What constructions of religion and public space make Banaras so unconducive to female mobility? Why does the success of the social services wing of Australia’s Salvation Army create anxiety for its religious wing? What is at stake for followers of Australian Spiritualism when they attend spirit-medium sessions? How are popular Islamic preachers vulnerable to action from Indonesia’s civil society organisations? What do media representations of Hajj pilgrimage by Indonesia’s presidents have in common with middle-class representations of gender? Why did Indonesia’s traditionalist Muslim intellectuals draw heavily upon the ideas of Jürgen Habermas in their theorisations of state-society relations? An epilogue by the Indonesian neo-traditionalist intellectual Ahmad Baso, the most prominent theorist of state-religion relations in that country, overviews the issues against the background of that country’s religious and political histories.

The Virgin Mary continues to attract devotees to her images and shrines. In Moved by Mary, anthropologists, geographers and historians explore how people and groups around the world identify and join with Mary in their struggle against social injustice, and how others mobilize Mary to impose ideas and rules and legitimize acts of violence and suppression.Far from an outdated practice of little relevance to the modern world, Marian pilgrimage expresses the deep and urgent concerns of a wide range of people. With examples of Marian pilgrimages in Europe, America, South America, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Moved by Mary explores the ways in which men and women of different ages and religious, political, social-economic and ethnic backgrounds empower themselves to deal with modern-day issues with Mary's help. The ethnographic cases reveal the cultural and devotional variation of Marian pilgrimage, but also global similarities. Collectively, the contributors to Moved by Mary show how in many places religion dramatically suffuses everyday life.

The Pilgrim Journey I strived to provide a title for my book that would focus the mind-set of the reader to our family's journey through life; that of immense hardships and struggles, as well as that of courage and determination, to bring about personal triumph over misfortunes. And within this context of selecting a Title, I also wanted to reflect an immerse reverence for the Lord; the Almighty. For we children were taught by word and deed, from early childhood, to place our faith in our Creator. For, out in the lonely country side, without a telephone, radio or TV, in the scorching summer time, sleeping out on the rickety front porch of our small two room house, I recall so clearly, looking up at the stars and the moon and reciting the little prayer that our Mom had taught us children; and never in my childish dreams fancying that I would live to see mankind journeying to and landing on that beautiful Heavenly body that I was observing. Now lay me down to sleep, Pray the Lord my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, Pray the Lord my soul to take. And when Sunday's rolled around, making it to our little country church on foot, in a wagon or buggy; listening to the great hymns of praise and acclamation, lives on as a memory bliss. Then, members of long ago, who rose to great prominence in life, coming back home for interment beside our little country church. Thus, I could not in the final analysis, but to provide a title that emulates, as near as possible, our sojourn to that of the early Pilgrims, who sacrificed and braved the immense hardships of leaving their homeland and journeying across the ocean to America for freedom of choice and worship. Miles to Go: Promises to Keep After much deliberation in selecting a befitting Title for my book, I continued to feel a certain void in my selection, as it appeared no to account for the countless miles of traversing that we had to do out in the countryside and the content that the journeying had on our lives; for it gave us time to reflect most deeply on our circumstances, where we had been in life, where we were in life and where we were going in life, and which of the promises we were going to keep in life; and thus selected the subtitle: Miles to Go: Promises to Keep.

Military Pilgrimage and Battlefield Tourism is the first volume to bring together a detailed analysis of professional military pilgrimage with other forms of commemorating military conflict. The volume looks beyond the discussion of battlefield tourism undertaken primarily by civilians which has dominated research until now through an analysis of the relationship between religious, military and civilian participants. Drawing on a comparative approach towards what has mostly been categorised as secular pilgrimage, dark tourism/thanatourism, military and religious tourism, and re-enactment, the contributors explore the varied ways in which memory, material culture and rituals are performed at particular places. The volume also engages with the debate about the extent to which western definitions of pilgrimage and tourism, as well as such related terms as religion, sacred and secular, can be applied in non-western contexts.