Spiritual Tourism: Travel and Religious Practice in Western Society

by Alex Norman

Publisher:

Continuum

, 2011

This book investigates spiritual tourism - tourism characterised by an intentional search for spiritual benefit - from a contemporary religious studies perspective. Using field research gathered from spiritual tourism locations in Asia and Europe, and utilizing contemporary scholarship on practices concerned with meaning and identity, it explores the phenomena of journeys that are taken for self transformation, tracing the history of transformative ideas in Western cultures of travel, and including the modes in which the travel experience has been communicated. Spiritual Tourism provides an important opportunity to comment on the role of tourism in contemporary conceptions of spirituality and spiritual practice in Western society.

Features

Ethnographically explores the intersection of spiritual practice and tourism.
Illustrates the use of tourism as part of, rather than separate from, everyday spiritual practices.
Explores how tourists make spiritual practice decisions with regard to motivational conceptions of journey outcome.

Contents

1. Introduction \ Part I: Finding Spiritual Tourism in the Field \ 2. India: The Spiritual Marketplace \ 3. The Camino de Santiago: The Spiritual Workplace \ Part II: Theories of Travel and Spirituality \ 4. Tourism in Popular Culture and History \ 5. Theories of Leisured Travel \ 6. Contemporary Spirituality \ Part III: Understanding Spiritual Tourism in Context \ 7. India in the Mind of the Spiritual Tourist \ 8. The Camino de Santiago in the Mind of the Spiritual Tourist \ 9. Reading Spiritual Tourism \ Conclusions \ Appendices \ Glossary \ Bibliography \ Index

Product Details

• Title: Spiritual Tourism: Travel and Religious Practice in Western Society
• Author: Alex Norman
• Publisher: Continuum
• Print Publication Date: 2011
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781441165190, 9781472514615, 1472514610, 1441165193
• Resource ID: LLS:9781441165190
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-05-16T21:34:26Z

About the Author

Alex Norman is Lecturer, Tutor and Researcher at the Department of Studies in Religion, University of Sydney, Australia. He is also Co-editor of the journal Literature and Aesthetics.