Sacred Tracks: 2000 Years of Christian Pilgrimage (review)

This nicely illustrated and well written volume focuses on some of the most famous pilgrimage routes and sites of Western Europe. In the context of a broad overview of church history, the author provides sufficient depth and understanding of history, theology, and of the nearly two-millennia-old phenomena of Christian pilgrimage for the general reader. James Harpur, who wrote this book while poet in residence at Exeter Cathedral in Devon, England, has divided the text into three sections, thus emphasizing a classic manner of elementary historical "periodization": the early, medieval, and modern church. While convenient for the purpose of the organization of his material, this approach has also, and unfortunately, fostered views of "dark ages" and "Reformers" that are perhaps too simplistic, especially given the last generation of scholarship.

The text is compact with much interesting information, including important quotations from historical figures and scholars. Generally rather accurate with regard to places, church doctrines, and ecclesiastical structures, there are some errors and oddities (e.g., "friars" who are referred to as "monks" and the designation of the Roman basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme as "St. Cross"). Anyone with a desire to pursue further research will undoubtedly be frustrated, however, due to the fact that there are no footnote or endnote references to such citations or to any other sources of information. There is a select bibliography and a helpful index. The book would also have been improved by the addition of maps, outlining both the location of the shrines described and the traditional pilgrimage routes to them.

In essence, ten centers of prayer are highlighted: Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago de Compostela, Canterbury, Lourdes, Knock, Croagh Patrick, Fatima, Iona, and Taizé. Each is described in some detail with regard to historical and devotional developments. Seven other centers are given brief notice in a four-page "gazeteer" section. In addition, there is discussion of the tradition of the Irish peregrini, the ebb and flow of the cult of relics, traveling conditions during the medieval period, and of theological and spiritual opposition to pilgrimage, and other appropriate commentary. Harpur is right to note that in an age when "many churches in the West are more or less in decline, pilgrimage, with or without secular adjuncts such as sightseeing or keeping fit, continues to thrive" (p. 180). Though largely divorced from the ancient purpose of penance in the mind of many modern practitioners, detachment from the ordinary and at least some physical exertion beckons a new generation to traditional sites, as this book reminds us.