medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
In reply to Stella Rock, I'd see the point of making a comparison
with, say, Graceland or Abbey Road, or in a different culture a
club football ground, not as claiming an identity of such
practices with historical religious practice (whether Christian
as in the case of pilgrimmages to sites associated with saints or
to great cathedrals, or otherwise as in the case of ancient Greek
hero cults and especially the pan-Hellenic sanctuaries), but as a
way of beginning to describe the significance of the latter to
people who've no experience of such phenomena, using phenomena
with which they will be familiar. And there certainly can be a
sense of "shared history" and of community conveyed through such
secular pilgrimmages, artefacts, and worn symbols - for example,
I live in a country half a world away from the UK, in which
thousands of people with no historical links to it of any kind,
nevertheless wear the symbols of and identify as part of a
community associated with, specific football teams, taking pride
in their history and achievements, knowing details of players and
events from the time of their own infancy or even before they
were born, and engaging in rivalries with similar supporters of
other teams. In these and similar cases (whether based on
musical performers, or other elements of contemporary culture
like Star Trek), the symbols and even specific iconography (e.
g., why some teams wear variable numbers of stars over their
emblems when playing in specific contexts - representing past
titles) may also be readily identifiable by someone involved in
or aware of that culture, but more or less opaque to outsiders,
but in each case, the key point of comparison would be that of
the adherents' feeling themselves part of a community, a
tradition, or a phenomenon larger than themselves, and affirming
and expressing that identity through significant symbols,
objects, and sites (and in some cases also songs and ways of
doing things). I'm not by any means suggesting that the
phenomena are the same or even broadly similar (and the key
difference that such comparisons will not elucidate is of course
in the aspect of belief and of what John Dillon termed
"wonder-working or salvific" potential); only that some elements
of the modern-day practices might serve as useful comparanda
through which to explain to specific groups features of cultures
that are alien to them.
Terrence Lockyer
Johannesburg, South Africa
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