Description: This books reflects on sites such as shrines, monasteries or a revered mountain, cave or tree, shared by more than one religion in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Brazil. It explores how their multiple meanings, inherent ambiguity and shared rituals, transcending the confines of orthodoxy, may contribute to their power for the pilgrim.
Brief description: Thierry Zarcone is a Senior Research Fellow (Directeur de recherches) at CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research), Paris.
Review Quotes:
In the engaging and accessible essays that comprise Pilgrimage and Ambiguity the contributors consider the ambiguous forces that cohere in sacred spaces - forces that move us into the inspirational depths of human spirituality. In so doing, the essays bring us closer to a deeper appreciation of how ambiguity helps to define the human condition. This collection is one that will be read and debated for many years to come.
Paul Stoller, West Chester University, Pennsylvania
2013 Anders Retzius Gold Medal Laureate in Anthropology
In a time of religious polarization, this fine collection of essays recalls that ambiguity, ambivalence and shared experience characterize the sacred as it is encountered in pilgrimages. Readers will travel through the Mediterranean, India, Pakistan and China, but also Western Europe and Amazonia, to
discover saintly landscapes full of multiple meanings.
Alexandre Papas, Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris