Pilgerwege ins “Heilige Land”: Beiträge zur Religionsgeografie der Alten Kirche ed. by Ulrich Fellmeth, Ulrich Mell (review)

This little volume is the result of a symposium on early Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land, organized in 2009 at the Universität Hohenheim in Stuttgart. The focus of the conference (and of these proceedings) was on the beginnings of Christian pilgrimage to Palestine in the fourth century and the early pilgrimage accounts in relation to changing theological perceptions with regard to religious geography and travel to sites of Christian memory. The volume contains six contributions (all in German) of different length and varying scholarly significance.

The volume opens with a fairly superficial contribution by Marion Giebel about the beginnings of pilgrimage to Palestine starting with Constantine’s mother Helena (who, despite recent scholarly consensus, is unfortunately considered here as a pilgrim), the journey of the Bordeaux pilgrim (333) and then focusing in particular on the itinerary of Egeria, who visited the Holy Land and the nearby regions at the end of the fourth century. The second article, by Hanswulf Bloedhorn, also focuses on Egeria’s journey, which the author dates past 390 instead of the generally accepted date of 381–84, and summarizes her travels to and along Jewish memory sites. Ulrich Fellmeth discusses Constantine’s religious and church-building policies. Fellmeth deals with matters that have filled extensive bookshelves: the development of Constantine’s conversion to Christianity and the nature of his religious conviction, and the influence of the emperor’s Christianity on his religious policy. He argues fittingly that Constantine’s religious policy was more pragmatic than dogmatic, that he did not prohibit pagan practices, and that his program of church building—twenty-two ecclesiastical buildings are known to have been constructed during his reign—fit well with his strategy to make Christianity visible. A second article by Fellmeth discusses the fourth-century pilgrim’s accounts in the context of the geographical circumstances of the period—in particular, the Roman network of roads as we know it from written itineraria and so-called itineraria picta or maps, the best known of which is the Tabula Peutingeriana. Fellmeth reconstructs the sources of information the early pilgrims had at their disposal, the routes they (may) have followed, and the means of transportation. The best articles have been preserved for the last. Ulrich Mell provides an interesting discussion on the concept of holy or sacred from a theological perspective. He argues that the idea of Christian sacredness goes back to Jewish precursors; in particular, the city of Jerusalem was considered sacred to the Jews, and Christians adopted this idea. The last contribution, by Oliver Dyma, also focuses on Jerusalem and Jewish religious travel to the holy city for the celebration of the various religious festivals; Jews also visited the sites of their patriarchs. Although the author does not explicitly say so, Christian religious travel from Constantine onward must have been inspired by Jewish travel to Jerusalem and the patriarchal tombs of the Second Temple period.

The topic of Christian pilgrimage and religious geography has received considerable attention in the scholarship of early Christianity and in late-antique studies concerning the Holy Land. Fundamental questions have been raised: Was there Christian religious travel to Jerusalem and Palestine before the age of Constantine? Were there Christian holy sites before Constantine, and if not, how and why did places become sacred? Why and when did the Christian theology regarding locality change? These questions are not addressed in this volume, which offers nice introductions but unfortunately lacks in-depth discussion of important issues concerning early Christian pilgrimage, accounts of pilgrims, and sacred geography as raised in recent scholarship.