Creating Ritual through Narrative, Place and Performance in Evangelical Protestant Pilgrimage in the Holy Land

Introduction

“…Furthermore, the different knowledge forms produced, circulated, ignored, or concealed in and through pilgrimage sites and practices may contribute to the formation of hierarchies within the pilgrimage through the creation of the need for mediation. Studies of guiding by Jackie Feldman (2007) and Vida Bajc (2007), for example, have indicated the importance of the guides' historical and geographical "knowledge of the Land" (Bajc 2007: 402, 399;Feldman 2007: 356) in shaping the spiritual experience. This knowledge is felt to be important by the pilgrims who wish to experience (biblical) events relating to their religion in the places where these are thought to have taken place (Feldman 2007: 355).…”

Travelling with the Idea of Taking Sides

“…Christian groups consist of people who belong to the same Christian denomination, quite often from the same church and accompanied by a cleric from their home congregation. The worldwide growth and increasing influence of evangelical Christianity8 is reflected in the growing importance of these groups in 'Holy Land' tourism (Bajc 2007). Many evangelicals and Pentecostals are wealthy and come from urban areas.…”

Walking on the Pages of the Word of God

“…In the excerpt Ron also connects his encounter with the land to his previous experience of "realizing Israel" which in the previous chapter was discussed in terms of a continuous conversion: realizing contemporary Israel's spiritual significance and being able to live in the land has "definitely" deepened his "walk with God". "The land of the Bible" is a narrative construct with which most Christians have, to some extent, been familiar most of their lives, but also something that travelers to Israel encounter in tour guide narratives and the products of the tourism industry, albeit in different ways that depend on their denominational and cultural backgrounds (Bajc 2007, Feldman 2007, Goldman 2009, 10-14, Kaell 2014. Generally speaking, "the land of the Bible" refers to the significance of the land in biblical history and the geography's connection to the biblical narratives.…”