Heil en heling. De mobilisatie van de belangstelling voor heilige plaatsen van genezing in katholiek Nederland sinds 1850

Samenvatting

Salvation and Healing: The Mobilization of Interest in Holy Places of Healing in Dutch Catholicism since 1850. This article investigates the development of the popularity of pilgrimage to Catholic holy places of healing in the Netherlands since 1850 and the factors that contribute to it. This development is divided in three periods: 1850-1960; 1960-1980, and 1980-present. In the first period, interest in making a pilgrimage to holy places of healing increased strongly, but in the 1960s, this interest fell. However, since the early 1980s, some devotional sites -- both official and unofficial -- have increased in popularity once more, and individuals' interest in pilgrimages has been slightly growing again. Starting from a mobilization approach, this development is related to contextual and institutional factors. With regard to the context, the growth and decline of the power of organized religion, the pillarization and de-pillarization of Dutch society, and the rise of a culture of health, fitness, and healing since the 1960s are all significant. Changes in the style of functioning of the Catholic movement are also very important; the three periods are characterized by an attitude of mobilization and militancy, of openness and assimilation, and of a renewed awareness of its own Catholic identity. The development of this attitude is connected to changes in the power and cultural position of Catholicism in Dutch society. It is argued that devotional practices of healing are not an anachronistic element in Dutch and Western European culture, but a normal phenomenon with the vitality to survive in modern times. 2 Tables, 1 Schema, 42 References. Adapted from the source document.