Article in "Culture and Religion"

From Christian religion to feminist spirituality: Mary Magdalene pilgrimages to La Sainte-Baume, France 

Culture and Religion, Volume 10, Issue 3 November 2009 , pages 243 - 261

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a916546654

Abstract In recent years, the pilgrimage shrine of La Sainte-Baume has attracted an increasing number of non-Catholic pilgrims influenced by the 'New Age' and the Neopagan movement. These pilgrims consider Mary Magdalene as a sort of female counterpart of Jesus and the mountain of La Sainte-Baume, where according to a Christian legend she spent the last part of her life, as a 'power place' charged with 'healing energy'. Based on 3 years of field work among Mary Magdalene pilgrims and drawing on Tanya Luhrmann's idea of 'interpretive drift' (1989), the essay describes the way in which these pilgrims gradually shift from their previous Christian background towards what they generally identify as 'spirituality'. The pilgrims reconceptualise La Sainte-Baume and its saint, and make their own a shrine they feel was misappropriated and unjustly monopolised by the 'Church'.

Keywords: feminist spirituality; Neopaganism; Roman Catholicism; Mary Magdalene; shrines; pilgrimage; Da Vinci Code