The Encyclopedia of World Religions

pilgrimage S 343

P ROTESTANTISM ), have significant examples of pil grimage as part of their tradition. Medieval Christians went to J ERUSALEM and the Holy Land; the alleged cutting-off of access to these sacred places was a principal reason for the C RUSADES . Modern Roman Catholics go to Jerusa lem, Bethlehem, and Rome, and also in great num bers to shrines, especially where apparitions of the Blessed Virgin M ARY are believed to have occurred: Lourdes in France, Fatima in Portugal, Guadalupe in Mexico, and others. Eastern Orthodox Christians travel to the Holy Land and also to famous shrines and monasteries in their homelands. Many Jews go to Israel in a pilgrimage mood, visiting such sacred places as the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Hindus flock to the banks of the sacred G AN GES R IVER , especially at such holy cities as B ANARAS and Rishikesh, and to countless shrines of gods and SAINTS throughout the land. In China and Japan sacred peaks, like Taishan in China, Mount Kailas in Tibet, and the celebrated Mount Fuji in Japan, draw innumerable pilgrims; something about the clear, clean atmosphere of a mountain height suggests entry into a sacred realm. It is well known that all Muslims, once in their life time, try to make the hajj, the pilgrimage to the holy city of M ECCA in Saudi Arabia. Islam also boasts many shrines of saints that draw spiritual travelers as well. Pilgrimage is based on a common religious assumption that the geography of the Earth is not, so to speak, spiritually homogenous, but that some places are more open to contact with divine power than others. That may be because of association with a sacred person or event, which has there left its mark, or because of a divine VISION or revela tion, or just because G OD has in some way blessed it. Thus to be there is to be close to sacred power. Second, the very act of pilgrimage can be seen as a spiritual exercise, like PRAYER or MEDITATION or YOGA or going to a service, but with one’s feet or by other means of travel. Many people want to express their religion by doing something active, and pilgrimage is one way of doing it. It combines religion with an activity many people find pleasant and educational.

experiences time differently from human beings. He urges them to remain faithful until the day of judgment. Further reading: Paul J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter: A Commentary on First Peter (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1996); John H. Elliott, 1 Peter: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New York: Doubleday, 2000); Jerome H. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New York: Doubleday, 1993). Pharisees A prominent religious group in late Second Temple J UDAISM (roughly 200 B . C . E .–70 C . E .). The Jewish antiquarian Josephus (37–after 93 C . E .) wrote books on the Jews and their his tory. He identified several religious groups in Judaism during the late Second Temple period: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the ESSENES , and the Zealots. The Pharisees centered their religious life on the study of the T ORAH and on the SYNAGOGUE rather than on the SACRIFICES of the Temple. Their primary constituency seems to have been shopkeepers and merchants, and their leaders were known as RAB BIS . When the Temple was destroyed in 70 C . E ., their descendants took charge of the community and tradition. They formulated rabbinical Juda ism, the Judaism we know today. The Pharisees appear frequently in the N EW T ESTAMENT . The GOSPELS highlight their differences from J ESUS , who preached to the poor, or from those who lacked the resources to maintain the Pharisees’ style of Judaism. Many scholars have suggested that this portrayal is inaccurate. It may reflect a situation of competition between Phari sees and the earliest Christians for Jewish loyalty in the first century C . E . pilgrimage Travel for religious reasons, partic ularly to visit a site that is considered especially sacred and a source of blessings to those who approach it. Virtually all religions in the world, with the exception of Protestant Christianity ( see