Click here (atlastours) for a brief overview about the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the ancient-traditional site of Jesus' birth...
And click here (NYTimes) to learn about a recent international decision concerning the church...
Why do you think that religious pilgrimage to holy sites like this plays such an important (aspirational, even if not actual) role for believers? What does 'going there' achieve for the pilgrim?
6 comments:
I think that the pilgrimages to such sites as this make the religious pilgrim feel that they are closer to God and Christ. The people who travel to this site are given an extremely interesting view into the past. I do feel however that that politicizing of this particular site is a sad sign of the times.
Bob
I think that the pilgrimages enforce the notion that "seeing is believing," in the sense that concrete evidence can enhance or provoke deeper spiritual and religious connections with God. I think that the pilgrim would feel a sense of fulfillment after visiting a holy site because of its history and meaning. To stand in a place of such significance to so many people would be likely an educational and spiritual honor.
I am pleased that the church is now a Unesco World Heritage Site, as this means it will hopefully be maintained in order to preserve its historical, educational, and religious significance.
Lauren
I agree with Lauren and the 'seeing is believing'. Having such a tangible monument, ancient in origin, allows people to come as close as they can physically to an aspect of their religion. A person can achieve total emotional and spiritual connection in their religion, and this physical component completes the entire dynamic in which a person can be connected in their religion, with its deities, prophets, or anything else.
Sydney
I agree with comments before me, seeing is believing. If I can't see it, I won't believe that it's real. Also the ritual of being able to make a pilgrimage brings believers as close as they can get, both emotionally and physically, to the aspect of their religion. Along with this connection, they can also connect with their past and follow the same paths that generations before them followed. I like that is now labeled a Heritage Site because everything about the site, historically, educationally, and religiously, will be maintained and preserved.
Saryn
Believers are connected more closely to both their community and their diety through religious pilgrimages. Often, having to take the time, effort and resources to make a pilgrimage is enough to pull people's minds away from their daily lives to focus on their religion and its subsequent beliefs. "Going there" surrounds the pilgrim with a different energy than they might experience in their home congregation. Whether this energy is something that comes from within the pilgrim or comes from the place isn't necessarily important - the important bit is that they, themselves, are taken out of context and able to focus on whatever should be most important to them.
Sophie
Excellent comments. Pilgrimage even seems to exert a cognitive impact on participants, fusing their memories with those of the tradition's founders.
pdk
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