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Paper short abstract

The paper investigates how “The Way” manifests as a higher spirit or teacher on the Camino de Santiago, conceptualizing it as a non-human actor guiding pilgrims, while digital technologies redistribute agency, foreground reflexivity, and reconfigure sacred–secular boundaries.

Paper long abstract

The paper investigates how “The Way” manifests as a higher spirit or as a teacher in the pilgrims’ lived experiences during the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. Building on dozens of interviews with pilgrims, it conceptualizes the Camino not only as a place, but as an active agent, a non-human actor and higher power that guides the journey and imparts teachings through the landscape, as well as through physical and spiritual trials and encounters. Drawing on theories of non-human agency and lived religion (Latour 2005; Stengers 2005; Deleuze 1992) the paper situates pilgrimage as a relational and processual practice in which meaning emerges through interactions between humans, material environments, and transcendental interpretations.

In contrast, modern technologies such as smartphones and social media place pilgrims in a position of conscious choice between the sacred and the profane, transforming encounters traditionally understood as involuntary or divinely initiated into deliberate, curated decisions. The paper argues that while the Camino itself continues to function as an active agent in pilgrims’ meaning-making processes, digital technologies redistribute agency by foregrounding individual reflexivity and intentionality, thereby reconfiguring the boundaries between the sacred and the secular.

Methodologically, the author combines autoethnography with semi-structured interviews and long-term participant observation conducted while volunteering at the Hungarian Pilgrims’ Office. By foregrounding these dynamics, the study contributes to broader discussions on pilgrimage, non-human agency, and the transformation of religious practice in digitally mediated contexts.