Benedetta Lomi is a professor of religion at Bristol University, who focuses on Japanese Buddhism, its material, and visual culture, with particular emphasis on the performative, healing and transformative dimensions of Buddhist rituals, scriptures and objects.

Ian Reader is a scholar of contemporary Japanese religion at Lancaster University whose work includes pilgrimage, Japanese Buddhism, new religious movements and religious practice in Asia.

This source guide provides background and resources to help you report on holy expeditions across the world, with a range of relevant stories and experts to reference along the way.

Simon Coleman is professor of religion at the University of Toronto. Coleman’s research focuses on Christian pilgrimage, Pentecostalism and religion in urban contexts in places as diverse as Sweden, England and Nigeria.

Michael A. Di Giovine is professor of anthropology at West Chester University and director of its Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. His research in Italy and Southeast Asia lies at the intersection of global mobilities (tourism/pilgrimage and immigration), heritage, development, foodways and comparative religious movements.

Heather A. Warfield is a professor at Antioch University New England. After a career as a mental health therapist, she pursued research on the therapeutic value of pilgrimages. In the decade since, she has delved further into what motivates people to go on pilgrimages, the stories pilgrims share and the meaning pilgrims create from their journeys — […]

Deana Weibel is an anthropology professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. She has performed research in the French shrine towns of Lourdes and Rocamadour, on veneration of Black Madonnas, pilgrimage to space and the competition between pilgrimage and tourism.

Ruth Everhart is a pastor, author and speaker in Leesburg, Virginia. She has written three books, including Chasing the Divine in the Holy Land, a spiritual travel memoir.

In this edition of ReligionLink, we try our hand at predicting some of next year’s big religion news themes and tease out the kinds of stories journalists, commentators and analysts might be working on, talking about or sharing with one another in 2023.