Powers of Pilgrimage

An impressive overview of the state of the field of pilgrimage studies. Coleman does an excellent job of putting scholars in context and in dialogue with each other, from anthropologists Victor and Edith Turner to cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall. Coleman presents a complex view of pilgrimage that opens up new possibilities for study and analysis. . . . This book will be an invaluable resource for scholars of ritual, pilgrimage, religion, geography, politics, and beyond.

-- Sarah Pike, California State University, Chico

A lucid, wide-reaching, and brilliant book that provides us with a valuable new theoretical lexicon and framework for exploring human pilgrimage. Coleman’s attention to mobilities, context at multiple scales, emergence, uncertainties, and ambiguities further illustrates the relevance of political economy and social justice for pilgrimage studies. This volume will have a major and lasting impact on Pilgrimage Studies and beyond.

-- Sharon R. Roseman, co-editor of The Tourism Imaginary and Pilgrimages to the Edges of the World
Powers of Pilgrimage is an important book for scholars of pilgrimage and religion, but also for scholars of culture, mobility, economy, and geography. The book provides an impressive overview and analysis of the field as well as an impassioned call to expand the field’s approaches and subjects. -- Melissa Coles * The Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism *
Coleman’s book is an extremely worthwhile read, bound to leave its mark on the anthropology of religion and beyond.It successfully sets an agenda of interest to anyone, or any discipline engaged in the study of religion. -- Maja Balle and Bjorn Thomassen * Social Sciences and Missions *
A much-needed and long overdue exploration of the richness of pilgrimage research… Power of Pilgrimage is a compelling and influential book that establishes parameters for comparative research in pilgrimage studies. * Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion *
An insightful voyage into the complexities and intricacies of pilgrim practices in various parts of the world today … Coleman’s book is an extremely worthwhile read, bound to leave its mark on the anthropology of religion and beyond. * Social Sciences and Missions *
Powers of Pilgrimage makes an enormous contribution to studies of pilgrimage by reframing and expanding the field…The book provides an impressive overview and analysis of the field as well as an impassioned call to expand the field’s approaches and subjects, including by rejecting false binaries between 'religious' and 'secular' spaces, peoples, and practices. * Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism *
A summation of decades of research that provides a pathbreaking and critical clearing of the field—re-examining older works, discussing recent developments and patterns, and helping open new directions and insights, both methodological and theoretical. It is truly impressive in its scale and depth ... a critical resource for current and future pilgrimage scholars, helping to illuminate meaningful connections and new lines of inquiry beyond the reproduction of certain well-worn tropes within Anglophone studies. This is a refreshing and welcome invitation to enlarge the field of study and ensure pilgrimage remains a vital and productive category to think with (and through) the contours of socio-religious life in the early 21st century. -- David Geary * Reading Religion *
Coleman skillfully advances a theoretical vocabulary that brings attention to encounters around and through sacred sites and reinforces pilgrimage’s impacts across relationships, institutions, and time. * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *
Coleman’s book offers a different perspective on pilgrimage—one which puts to the fore its relevance in the age of heightened mobility—but he does so without discounting the value of previous scholarship on the topic. * Religious Studies Revi