Description: "An examination of how biblical tourism is enmeshed within the production and management of heritage; marketing and publicity in contexts of global tourism; accessibility of Bible-related sites and routes for multiple audiences; and, the forging of connections between touristic experience and biblical identity"--
Brief description: James S. Bielo is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA. He is the author of four books, most recently Ark Encounter: The Making of a Creationist Theme Park (2018), and is the co-founder and lead curator for the digital scholarship project Materializing the Bible.
Review Quotes:
"The Bible and Global Tourism takes a fresh look at the cross-fertilization of tourism and pilgrimage through tourists' dynamic engagements with scripture and associated traditions. In a series of fascinating examples from the United States, western Europe, and the Mediterranean, its chapters build a case for rethinking 'secularization, ' in Europe in particular, by recognizing how tourism can create new and diverse faces for religious practice." --Hilary Kaell, Concordia University, Canada
"Innovative research now mainly takes place at the interface of closely related thematic clusters, and this book on biblically-framed travel or biblical tourism can therefore touch on religious studies, ritual studies, pilgrimage studies, leisure studies, heritage studies, and museum studies. Rather than top-heavy multi- or transdisciplinary theorizing, this book presents eleven fascinating case studies. Their approach is always broad, open and topical. Broad and open in terms of period, location, religious tradition; manifestation, and topical in looking through the lens of claims of authenticity and identity constructions. In essence, this book fully explores the dynamic triad of myth, rite and place." --Paul Post, Tilburg University, Netherlands "Each essay [provides] a fascinating insight into the area which its author discusses and...it is well-worth reading." --The Expository Times