The Church as a Pilgrim in the Age of Commercialized Tourism: An Ecclesiological Essay
Antoni Nadbrzeżny
The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0973-3625
Abstract
This article presents the Church as a pilgrim community of faith in the context of the contemporary phenomenon of commercialized tourism. From an anthropological perspective, commercialized tourism is a dynamic cultural practice grounded in an “aesthetics of pleasure.” It tends to standardize signs, symbols, and beliefs, thereby contributing to the global homogenization of cultures and religions. The tourist has become one of the characteristic metaphors for the lifestyle of postmodern humanity. In response to this phenomenon, contextual ecclesiology seeks to present the nature and mission of the Church credibly by drawing on the category of the pilgrim, deeply rooted in the Christian tradition. It aims to identify the essential differences between the hedonistically oriented practice of commercialized tourism and the soteriologically directed ecclesial pilgrimage of faith. As Christ’s pilgrim community, the Church does not deny the value of responsible tourism; rather, it opens up new horizons of human mobility: transcendent, eschatological, axiological, and soteriological. The article employs the theological method of correlation characteristic of contextual and pretextual ecclesiology. The global phenomenon of tourism, understood as a modern form of mobility, is not examined here in detail. Instead, in keeping with a “bottom-up” approach to theology, it serves as a cultural pretext for deeper reflection on the nature and mission of the Church in the contemporary world. The article consists of three parts. The first characterizes tourism as a cultural phenomenon. The second discusses the theological model of the Church as communio peregrinans. The third explores the significance of the Church as a pilgrim community of faith in view of the danger of existential emptiness generated by commercialized tourism and overtourism.
Keywords:
mission of the Church, commercialized tourism, pilgrimage, community, faith, salvationReferences
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The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
Ks. Antoni Nadbrzeżny, profesor Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II, doktor habilitowany nauk teologicznych w zakresie teologii dogmatycznej, doktor nauk humanistycznych w zakresie filozofii. Zajmuje się współczesną teologią niderlandzką i flamandzką oraz myślą teologiczną i filozoficzną Paula Tillicha. Najważniejsze publikacje: Od Matki Odkupienia do Matki wszystkich wierzących. Mariologia Edwarda Schillebeeckxa, Wydawnictwo KUL, Lublin 2005; Sakrament wyzwolenia. Zbawcze posłannictwo Kościoła w posoborowej teologii holenderskiej, Wydawnictwo KUL, Lublin 2013; Filozofia zbawienia. Soteriologia egzystencjalna Paula Tillicha i Edwarda Schillebeeckxa, Wydawnictwo WAM, Kraków 2020.
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