Pilgrimage, faithful secularity, and the commodification of the vulnerable body

Hoping for physical and spiritual healing, pilgrims have journeyed to a holy shrine to touch the relics of a saint. Along the way, pilgrims experienced togetherness with their sojourners and care from mere strangers, without whom the pilgrimage would not work. When thinking about modern healthcare, Joshua Hordern advocates for considering biomedical care as a pilgrimage. There is much to commend in Hordern's approach; however, we would like to raise a caution. The confidence that an ongoing Christian consciousness exists within healthcare too easily overlooks its embedded practice in a modern biomedical model that has become enchanted not by the body on pilgrimage, but by Mammon, which views the body fundamentally in terms of a calculative quantification. If we do not offer an alternative political and economic structure for the practice of healthcare, then the fruitful image of the pilgrimage will be overpowered by the body as a commodity.

Commodification · Christian Theology and Mission · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious Tourism and Spaces

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