Traditionally a Catholic pilgrimage, the Camino increasingly attracts the spiritual, but not the religious.
In her early 30s, Rachael Sanborn was in a bad relationship and dreamed of a getaway to the Camino de Santiago in Spaina pilgrimage that his father had undertaken and that had profoundly changed his life.
Sanborn, rebellious and adventurous by nature (she dropped out of college to meditate in India for a year), quit her job, gave up health insurance, and rHe pooled his savings to walk the Camino for two months. On the third day she promised herself that I would return every year. Nine months later, he was back, leading his first group of eight pilgrims.
A decade later, now 45 years old and living in the Bay Area, leads grief walks and walking meditations along the Camino with the travel company he founded, ‘Red Monkey Walking Travel‘. The red jumpsuit is a nod to Hanuman, the Hindu god of cheerful service. Raised as a Tibetan Buddhist, Christian and Jewish, Sanborn considers herself all three. She believes that everyone can find a way to make the Way work for their religion.
“We’ve had everyone from devout Catholics to atheist Chinese,” Sanborn says. “During the last 1,000 years, the Camino has always been open to all religions. Some of my first friends walked from Iran. Iran. And they would stand in every closed church or outside it and read poems by Rumi.”
A growing trend of non-Christian pilgrims
Sanborn represents a growing trend of non-Catholic pilgrims – even non-Christians – who venture on the Camino. In 2023, almost half a million people walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain. About 40% did so for purely religious reasons.according to statistics published by the pilgrim’s office.
Although traditionally it is a Catholic pilgrimage that ends at the sanctuary of the apostle Santiago in the Santiago de Compostela Cathedrallay pilgrims embark on the Camino today for all kinds of motivations beyond religion: health, grief, transition, cultural explorationhistory and adventure.
Sharon Hewitt, from St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, walked part of the Trail in the fall of 2016 with two friends. His motivation was to spend time with friends and take a vacation “with purpose”. Hewitt does not consider herself religious, but she recognized a type of devotion in the rituals and challenges of the eight days of walking.
“I didn’t do it for religious reasons, but there is a coincidence,” Hewitt says. “Much of religion is discipline, just like the Way. “After a hard night, you get up and carry on.” This synthesis of religious and secular motivations is profound for people like Nancy Mead, president of The Friends of the Anglican Center of Santiago de Compostela, an ecumenical religious organization.
Mead, an Episcopalian who lives in Rhode Island, says There are as many reasons to walk the Camino as there are people who walk it.. Although for her the Camino is a religious experience, she has also learned life lessons that apply to everyone, religious or not.
She has walked seven different routes of the Camino and each time she has to remind herself that must lighten your load; Extra makeup and clothes are nothing more than an added weight to the trip.
Spiritual but not religious: secular spirituality
The number of “spiritual but not religious” pilgrims on the Camino has increased in the last two decades with demographic growth and the emergence of “secular spirituality”.
Jacqui Frost, whose research at Purdue includes health and well-being Among the non-religious, he says researchers are increasingly using the language of spirituality to talk about secular experiences of feeling connected to something larger than oneself, something he says often occurs in nature.
“We have begun to secularize many of what used to be religious rituals,” Frost says. “Let’s think about meditation, yoga or even atheist churches. “Many people are interested in rituals and finding meaning in these collective events.”
As this growing spiritual but non-religious group borrows religious rituals and beliefs, the question arises of how to do so without appropriating them. Many of the reasons why non-religious people go on the Camino are similar to the reasons why religious people go.
In a study published in 2019 in the journal ‘Sociology of Religion’, researchers examined the motivations of atheist pilgrims versus those of religious pilgrims to travel the Santiago’s road and they discovered an overwhelming coincidence between motivations; most were looking connect with nature and your deepest self. The only two measures that differed were community and religious motivations, which were higher for religious pilgrims.
ADVERTISINGReligious ethicist and author of the upcoming book ‘The Religion Factor: How Restoring Religion in Our Spirituality Makes It More Meaningful, Responsible, and Effective’, Liz Bucar, states that the growing number of spiritual but non-religious pilgrims represents a need to search for meaningeven when religion has been rejected.
But she doesn’t think it’s as easy as letting go of religion, and she’s not sure the same benefits can be gained without it. “If you want to get the most out of the pilgrimage, you have to commit to the religion,” says Bucar. “Spirituality is what they call the parts of religion they like.. Religion is part of the secret sauce.” At the end of the day, Bucar says, pilgrimage is spiritual tourism.
The uncomfortable facts that tourist guides omit
Bucar describes the Camino today as a “curated, socially constructed experience, with institutions involved.” She used to guide college students on the Camino, but she came to believe that the journey fueled the idea that this spiritual connection or transcendence can be accessed. participating in a temporary experience.
He says that the Camino falls into this category, which his new book deals with, these spiritual hacks and shortcuts people take when they “don’t want to do religion”. Bucar asked students to write an application essay for the class, and most cited the desire to have a transformative experience as their reasoning for wanting to walk the Camino. “They are looking for a quick solution, a life-changing experience“, dice.
ADVERTISINGHe is not opposed to bringing students back. But he would do it differently. Instead of focusing on the inner journey, you would encourage your students to study the historical context of the routes and the controversial parts of the story that the official Spanish tourist guides could omit.
After all, Santiago is also known as Santiago Matamoros. A tour guide won’t tell you the story of Matamoros helping Charlemagne murder Muslims. She would foreground the construction of historical narratives.
“It would make it less fun for them and less of an experience. It’s much more valuable for these experiences to be uncomfortable and disorienting,” Bucar says. “You have to commit to your religion.”
For some, Christianity will always be part of the Way
For Sanborn, Christianity will always be at the heart of the Camino – even for those who bring a different religion or no religion to their pilgrimage – although he agrees with Bucar that Christianity on the Camino has not always been beautiful.
ADVERTISING“I think it is important to honor the Christianity of the Camino and appreciate its traditions and incredible art and architecture. But the Camino also passes through the place where more than 80 people were taken from their homes in the mountains and through the city where they were burned in the bonfire. That’s why I think It is important to see the best and the worst of religion“says Sanborn. “Every time I come into a church or cathedral “On a hot day, I find it impossible not to be overwhelmed.”
However, Sanborn resists the idea that non-Catholic pilgrims – “sometimes people call them tourist-pilgrims” – are unable to experience what the Camino offers.
“Everyone I have met along the Camino receives more than they expected, so it’s probably best not to judge,” he says. “The Camino is so special in ways I don’t pretend to understand, which is part of the great mystery of life. It’s magic”.
