A field study of religious tourism and festivity in contemporary Germany. The home of Martin Luther for thirty six years and seat of the German Reformation, Wittenberg, Germany is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Wittenberg has long been Protestant sacred space, but since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989,the city and surrounding region have been developing their considerable cultural capital. Today, Wittenberg is host to two large-scale annual Luther-themedfestivals, and is becoming a center for pilgrimage and heritage tourism. In arecent study,Charles Taylor notes that festivity is experiencing a renaissance as "one of the new forms of religion in our world." Festivals and pilgrimage routes are an integral part of contemporary religion and spirituality, and important cultural institutions in a globalized world.In Performing the Reformation, Stephenson offers a field-based case study of contemporary festivity and pilgrimage in the City of Luther. Welcome to Lutherland, where atheists dress up as monks and nuns for Luther's Wedding; conservative Lutherans work to sacralize the secular, carnival-like festivities; and medieval players, American Gospel singers, and Peruvian pan flute bands competefor the attention of the bustling crowds. Festivals and tourism in Wittenberginclude a range of performativegenres (parades and processions, liturgies and concerts, music and dance), cut across multiple cultural domains (religion, politics, economics), and effectconnections and shifts among identities (religious, secular, American, German, traditional, postmodern). Incorporating visual methodologies andgrounded in historical and social contexts, Stephenson provides an on-the-ground account of the annual Luther's Wedding Festival, the Reformation Day Festival, and Lutheran pilgrimage. He also brings his case study into dialogue withimportant methodological and theoretical issues informing the fields of ritual studies and performance studies.A model of interdisciplinary research, the book includes a DVD with over 2.5 hours of material, extending and animating textual accounts and interpretations. IllustrationsIntrodcution: APPROACHING LUTHERLAND1. OPENING THE DOOR2. THE WITTENBERG FESTIVALS3. A MIGHTY FORTRESS?4. MARTIN LUTHER, GERMAN HERO5. SOCIABILITY, CONVIVIALITY6. THE CARNIVALESQUE, PROCESSING CHANGE7. PILGRIMAGE, SACRED SPACEAPPENDIX AAPPENDIX BAPPENDIX CBibliographyIndexDVD CONTENTSIntroduction (9:49)Legend to Portal (6:46)Wedding Montage (3:46)Tetzel at the Doors (4:38)Confirmands (4:04)The Animators (40:32)Processing (24:09)Music (2:37)Martin (3:11)Lutherland-Fatherland (23:22)Worship (38:32)ExtrasImages of Luther's Wedding, 2005 (PowerPoint)Luther Protests (PowerPoint)Reformation Day Brochure, 2005 (pdf)Luther's Wedding Brochure, 2005(pdf)Selected Websites (pdf)Yale Conference Paper, Sensory Overload (pdf)* Extras are accessible by opening the disc in a computer's DVD-ROM drive
- ISBN: 978-0-19-973971-4
- Editorial: Oxford University
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 248
- Fecha Publicación: 02/09/2010
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés