Pilgrimsvandring som praktik : en kvalitativ studie om samspelet mellan sociala strukturer, kroppsliga handlingar och materiella villkor i Svenska kyrkans vandringar

Sammanfattning

This study explores how pilgrimages organized within the Church of Sweden are formed, practiced and experienced as a spiritual practice by participants in a contemporary, secular context. The purpose is to understand how an ancient Christian tradition has been reinterpreted and given new relevance in a modern society where questions of spirituality and meaning are increasingly expressed through lived, embodied and communal forms of faith. The study employs a qualitative approach, drawing on semi-structured interviews, a focus group with organizers, and participant observation during a pilgrimage. The analysis is guided by Theodore Schatzki’s practice theory, supported by a constructionist framework. From this perspective, spirituality is understood as something that is enacted in practice, where meaning emerges through the interplay of bodily actions, emotions, social arrangements, and material conditions. The findings show that pilgrimage within the Church of Sweden constitutes a meaningful and inclusive spiritual practice in which body, nature, and community are intertwined. Participants describe experiences of stillness, joy, and connection, where the walk itself, rather than a final destination, becomes the spiritual center. Nature is experienced as sacred and active, providing a setting where the divine can be sensed in creation. Shared guidelines, such as Hans-Erik Lindström’s seven key words, serve as spiritual orientations rather than prescriptive rules. The study concludes that contemporary Swedish pilgrimage within the Church of Sweden represents a form of secular spirituality that bridges church tradition and individual experience. The practice constitutes a hybrid between tradition and renewal, between the ecclesiastical and the individual and between the everyday and the sacred. Through the interaction between place, object and community, a lived theology is formed in which the sacred is experienced rather than defined. Pilgrimage thus emerges as a renewed religious practice that unites body, nature and faith and in which the sacred is encountered within ordinary life.