Peregrina o : possibilidades de compreens o crítica de uma experiência

This study inquires about the several possibilities of critical understanding of the – human and religious – experience of pilgrimage. After exploring the polarity present in the very idea of “experience” as conceived by the technical and scientific mentality and by the religious conviction, it is shown how the human sciences approach also reproduces similar polarities, to the point of epistemological rupture. The consideration of pilgrimage as “archetype” and “narrative” completes the possibilities for critical understanding of this experience, which are, finally, submitted to evaluation in the light of the current request for spirituality.