Contemporary Christian Travel

This book is the first to examine the depth, complexity and uniqueness of global Christian pilgrimage, travel and tourism, and how they manifest in terms of both supply and demand. It explores the places and spaces of production and consumption of this increasingly important tourism phenomenon. The volume considers the foundational elements of the attractiveness of places according to Christian thinking – spirit of place, scriptural connections, art and architecture, contrived/themed environments, programmed events, volunteer travel opportunities, and visiting local communities by way of solidarity tourism and mission work. It includes a wide range of examples from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America and North America and will be of interest to researchers and students in religious studies, tourism, pilgrimage studies, geography, anthropology and Christianity studies.

The Christian Travel Plannerintroduces readers to the world of faith-based travel and identifies the plethora of opportunities available to Christians planning a vacation

Brian Howell provides an anthropology of short-term mission (STM) among American Christians. Providing a history of STM along with an ethnographic case study of a trip to the Dominican Republic, Howell argues that the movement is sustained by a uniquely Christian travel narrative that borrows from the anthropology of tourism and pilgrimage.

This book covers the ideological motives and religious perceptions behind travel to sites prescribed with sanctity in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It covers sites that have drawn pilgrims and religious tourists to them for hundreds of years, and seeks to provide an understanding of the complex world of religiously motivated travel. Beginning with contemporary perspectives of pilgrimage across these religions, it then discusses management aspects such as logistics, infrastructure, malevolent behaviour and evangelical volunteers. Written by subject experts, this book addresses cultural sustainability for researchers and practitioners within religious tourism, religious studies, geography and anthropology.

The Christian life is a journey not just spiritually but also physically and experientially. As global travel becomes more accessible, new opportunities arise for these journeys to be spiritually significant. You may find yourself in historic places where Christian faith shaped entire civilizations. And you may realize that you too are being changed—from a tourist to a pilgrim. Christian George recovers the ancient spiritual practice of pilgrimage, in which travel to sacred sites leads to the transformation of the soul. In engaging narratives of his worldwide voyages, he follows in the footsteps of spiritual pilgrims from across the centuries, from Luther in Wartburg to Spurgeon in England. His travels to landmark places from Iona to Assisi give him not only a better understanding of his Christian heritage, but also of God's inner work in pilgrims throughout history and today. Come with Christian as he breaks bread with Benedictines in Ireland and worships with the Taizé community in France. Experience the transforming power of spiritual pilgrimage. And discover what it means to be a pilgrim as you follow God wherever he leads.

When Pope John Paul II died, Suzanne Strempek Shea, who had not been an active member of a church community for some years, recognized in his mourners a faith-filled passion that she longed to recapture in her own life. So she set out on a pilgrimage to visit a different church every Sunday for one year-a journey that would take her through the broad spectrum of contemporary Protestant Christianity practiced in this country. From a rousing Easter Baptist service in Harlem, to Colorado's Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame for a sing-along at the Cowboy Church; from a roofless Episcopal church in Hawaii, to a storefront African orthodox church where jazz legend John Coltrane is considered a bona fide saint; from the largest church in the country to a small-town church packed for a Sunday school class taught by Jimmy Carter, Shea toured more than thirty states in search of the meaning of Christian faith to the many who practice it. The result, Sundays in America, is an essential guide for those seeking a new house for their worship as well as a colorful road trip for the armchair explorer.

How do Christians make relationships with land central to their faith? How have the realities of materiality, geography, and ecology shaped Christian territories of belonging and theologies of territory? What social-economic-political conditions surround exchanges between religion and nature? This book explores how Christianity intersects with nature to create unique religious landscapes. Case studies range from the Mormon Trail across the USA completed by thousands every year, to the Catholic devotional cult of and shrine to St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. Contributors examine the entangled forms of agency between nature and culture that are at work as Christians produce, consume, experience, imagine, inhabit, manage, and struggle over formations of land. Focusing on Christian engagements with land forms in the early 21st century, this book advances the spatial turn in the study of religion, contributes to the anthropology of religion and the study of global Christianities, as well as our understanding of the relationship between Christianity, space and place.

The first comprehensive overview of contemporary inspirational music, covering its historical roots and dramatic growth into one of America's most vital music genres. The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music: Pop, Rock, and Worship is the first comprehensive reference work on a form of American music that is far more popular than nonfans may realize. It fills a major gap in the literature on American music and Christian culture, looking at this increasingly popular genre in the context of the overall history of religious music in the United States. With over 200 entries, The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music covers important performers and industry figures, songs and albums, concerts and festivals, the rise of Christian radio and television, and other issues related to the growth of inspirational music. Scholars and fans alike will find a wealth of revealing information and insightful coverage illustrating the influence of gospel on modern American music with musicians such as Elvis, Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and U2.The work also examines the use of fundamental rock, pop, and rap music templates in the service of songs of faith.

The Routledge Handbook on Tourism in the Middle East and North Africa examines the importance of tourism as a historical, economic, social, environmental, religious and political force in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It highlights the ecological and resource challenges related to water, desert environments, climate change and oil. It provides an in-depth analysis of the geopolitical conditions that have long determined the patterns of tourism demand and supply throughout the region and how these play out in the everyday lives of residents and destinations as they attempt to grow tourism or ignore it entirely. While cultural heritage remains the primary tourism asset for the region as a whole, many new types of tourisms are emerging, especially in the Arabian Gulf region, where hyper-development is closely associated with the increasingly prominent role of luxury real estate and shopping, retail, medical tourism, cruises and transit tourism. The growing phenomenon of an expatriate workforce, and how its segregation from the citizenry creates a dual socio-economic system in several countries, is unmatched by other regions of the world. Many indigenous people of MENA keep themselves apart from other dominant groups in the region, although these social boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred as tourism, being one socio-economic force for change, has inspired many nomadic peoples to settle into towns and villages and rely more on tourists for their livelihoods. All of these issues and more shape the foundations of this book. This Handbook is the first of its kind to examine tourism from a broad regional and inclusive perspective, surveying a broad range of social, cultural, heritage, ecological and political matters in a single volume. With a wide range of contributors, many of whom are natives of the Middle East and North Africa, this Handbook is a vital resource for students and scholars interested in Tourism, Middle East Studies and Geography.

In the spring of A.D. 587, John Moschos and his pupil Sophronius the Sophist embarked on a remarkable expedition across the entire Byzantine world, traveling from the shores of Bosphorus to the sand dunes of Egypt. Using Moschos’s writings as his guide and inspiration, the acclaimed travel writer William Dalrymple retraces the footsteps of these two monks, providing along the way a moving elegy to the slowly dying civilization of Eastern Christianity and to the people who are struggling to keep its flame alive. The result is Dalrymple’s unsurpassed masterpiece: a beautifully written travelogue, at once rich and scholarly, moving and courageous, overflowing with vivid characters and hugely topical insights into the history, spirituality and the fractured politics of the Middle East.