TY - JOUR
T1 - Atheists on the Santiago Way
T2 - examining motivations to go on pilgrimage
AU - Farias, Miguel
AU - J. Coleman, III, Thomas
AU - E. Bartlett, James
AU - Oviedo, Lluís
AU - Soares, Pedro Pestana
AU - Santos, Tiago
AU - Bas, María del Carmen
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - In the past thirty years the camino to Santiago de Compostela has been recreated as an eclectic pilgrimage, open to both religious and atheist travellers. Following previous work on motivational orientations and religion (Farias and Lalljee 2008), we conducted a study examining atheist vs. religious pilgrims’ motivations to walk the Santiago way. We assessed pilgrims (N = 360) at various parts of the northern Spanish camino using a questionnaire that measured motivations to go on pilgrimage. In addition, we measured levels of positive and negative affect, physical exertion and emotional problems. Atheists scored significantly lower on Community and Religious types of motivations. However, in several measures no differences were found between groups. We suggest that both atheist and religious pilgrims are exploring forms of horizontal and vertical transcendence characterised by a desire to connect to nature and one’s deeper self.
AB - In the past thirty years the camino to Santiago de Compostela has been recreated as an eclectic pilgrimage, open to both religious and atheist travellers. Following previous work on motivational orientations and religion (Farias and Lalljee 2008), we conducted a study examining atheist vs. religious pilgrims’ motivations to walk the Santiago way. We assessed pilgrims (N = 360) at various parts of the northern Spanish camino using a questionnaire that measured motivations to go on pilgrimage. In addition, we measured levels of positive and negative affect, physical exertion and emotional problems. Atheists scored significantly lower on Community and Religious types of motivations. However, in several measures no differences were found between groups. We suggest that both atheist and religious pilgrims are exploring forms of horizontal and vertical transcendence characterised by a desire to connect to nature and one’s deeper self.
U2 - 10.1093/socrel/sry019
DO - 10.1093/socrel/sry019
M3 - Article
VL - 80
SP - 28
EP - 44
JO - Sociology of Religion
JF - Sociology of Religion
IS - 1
ER -