Paper short abstract:

The paper examines movement as a spiritual technology in the context of pilgrimages, and how the notion of movement may help us to understand spirituality as a material practice.

Paper long abstract:

The so-called mobility turn in human sciences highlighted pilgrimage as a bodily activity, as movement. Pilgrimage was understood as not so much about reaching a (spiritual) goal as about moving towards it. Movement was, thus, not considered meaningless or subordinate to higher spiritual ends but was to be understood as inalienable from them. The paper continues this vein of study and examines movement as a technology enabling, contributing to, and forming embodied spiritual experiences in pilgrimages. Under examination are the ways in which the different facets of movement – such as form, pace, and rhythm – can be regarded as constitutive of pilgrims’ spiritual (whether secular or religious) ends. Furthermore, through the case of pilgrimage, the paper examines the analytical potential of the concept of movement in studying religious/spiritual practices by understanding it not merely as moving at, from, and to a place, but more broadly as including motion and emotion. The paper is based on participant observation during pilgrimages and interviews of pilgrims in Southern Finland in the summer of 2023.