From Tourist to Pilgrim: Theological and Pastoral Challenges in the Context of the Camino de Santiago

Abstract

AbstractThis article presents an analysis of the current challenges to the identity of the Christian pilgrim in the face of the dynamic growth of religious tourism. The semantic inflation that results in every wanderer being described as a pilgrim implies a new configuration of pastoral care, especially in terms of responding to the perceived “consumerism of the sacred.” In the context of Zygmunt Bauman’s observations concerning the transformation of the pilgrim into the tourist, the article proposes a reverse type of reflection, that is, how the tourist can become a pilgrim in the reality of modern-day pilgrimage routes. The Camino de Santiago was chosen as the point of reference, and current pastoral activities – both institutional and individual – were analyzed.