ABSTRACT
March 2008: a dozen academics met for a three-day conference at the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, traveling from Aberdeen, Brighton, Chicago, London (both Britain’s and Canada’s), New York, Norwich, Pittsburgh and Texas. They included sociologists, literary critics, art and social historians, and anthropologists. They were Catholic (practicing and ex-, Roman and Anglo-) Protestant, Jewish, Atheist, and religiously indifferent. There was, appropriately enough for a place centered on a mother, one babe-in-arms, with a devoted academic mother and her supportive husband. It was an extremely congenial gathering—attributable, some said, to the distinctive, even uncanny, atmosphere of the shrine and village, as well as to an unusually sunny late winter weekend. Following their meeting, the scholars collaborated on writing what became a collection of essays on the cultural importance of Walsingham, joined by others who had been unable to attend, from Alabama, Australia, New York, and Wales. 1
