The devil is in the definitions

Lk 10:25-37

Apocalypse recalled: the Book of Revelation after Christendom

Author: Harry O. Maier. Title: Apocalypse recalled. Publisher: Minneapolis : Fortress, 2002

Schweitzer and a mystical ecology in Paul

Issue topic: Festschrift in honour of Erwin Buck

Luther and the Trajectories of Western Pilgrimage

In ‘Luther and the Trajectories of Western Pilgrimage,’ Matthew R. Anderson asserts that after his long trek from Erfurt in 1510-1511, monk and Protestant reformer Martin Luther’s negative remembrances of Rome became one of the catalysts for his influential critique of pilgrimage. Luther’s fear of social unrest, Protestant theological attacks on the doctrines of merit, and Luther’s own personality solidified his antipathy to the practice. The Reformation led to the near-demise of pilgrimage in Protestant areas and the disruption of travel to those shrines that had an international draw. Because of this temporary eclipse, the rebirth of a form of international travel in the Romantic era that emphasized individualism, experience, and sentiment led to the coming of age of tourism, pilgrimage’s transformation in Catholic territories, and the wide variety of contemporary practices now referred to as pilgrimage

Zealous until Death: Voluntary Martyrdom and the Martyrs of Lyons

For decades, many scholars have been uncomfortable with the idea that some early Christians were eager to die. This led to the creation of the category “voluntary martyrdom” by which modern historians attempted to understand those martyrs who provoked their own arrest and/or death. Scholars then connected this form of martyrdom with an early Christian movement known as Montanism. Thus, scholars have scoured martyr accounts in an attempt to identify volunteers and label them Montanists. The Letter from the Churches of Vienna and Lyons and the martyrs it depicts did not escape such scrutiny. I contend that the martyrs in that account should not even be considered volunteers. This study surveys the role of the language of zeal and enthusiasm in the account of the martyrs of Lyons. I argue that this language in the text does not refer to reckless action but to the emulation of heroes often used by ancient Greco-Roman writers to describe the preparation of soldiers and athletes. I then turn to the theological aspects of the language of zeal and enthusiasm in the Letter, especially the connections between zeal and the Holy Spirit and the emulation of Christ. As far as the account itself is concerned, these martyrs behave according to the plan that God has for them in the struggle against Satan. Finally, I argue that the claims that have been made about the presence of Montanist influence in the Letter and the connection between Montanism and voluntary martyrdom are based in faulty assumptions

Walking to be Some Body: Desire and Diaspora on the St. Olaf Way

In ‘Walking to Be Some Body’ Matthew R. Anderson uses the example of North American Scandinavian-background pilgrims walking Norway’s St. Olaf Way to parse the yearning of contemporary diaspora pilgrims who walk repristinated routes along ancient paths toward real or imagined homelands. These travellers literally incarnate contemporary tensions between the religious and the non-religious, the journey and the destination, and between the rootlessness of modern global tourism and the rootedness longed for in community and patrimony