New Books in Indian Religions · Marshall Poe

Kathryn Hurlock, "Holy Places: How Pilgrimage Changed the World" (Profile, 2025)

·55 min·5 clips

Pilgrimage shapes everything from geopolitics to souvenir production, far beyond individual spiritual journeys.

This episode features Dr. Miranda Melcher interviewing Professor Kathryn Hurlock about her 2025 book, "Holy Places: How Pilgrimage Changed the World." Hurlock is a professor of religious and military history at Manchester Metropolitan University with expertise spanning medieval and modern pilgrimage. She argues that pilgrimage is a far more varied and globally impactful practice than common stereotypes suggest. The book examines 19 specific pilgrimage sites, selected for their geographical spread, religious diversity, and ability to illustrate different historical impacts. Key sites include major destinations like Mecca, Jerusalem, Rome, and Amritsar, as well as lesser-known places like Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in France and Ratana Pā in New Zealand. Hurlock explains that pilgrimage is fundamentally about the destination, not the journey, with motivations ranging from health and thanksgiving to seeking political authority or community solidarity. She details the political pilgrimage of Chinese Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu to Mount Tai in the 7th century, involving a procession 60 miles long. The decline of pilgrimage sites is explored through examples like Delphi, which faded with the rise of Christianity, and Chichen Itza, suppressed by Spanish friar Diego de Landa. New sites often emerge from Marian apparitions, like Lourdes, or from popular veneration of secular figures, such as Eva Perón in Argentina. Logistical challenges like overcrowding, safety, and accommodation have been consistent issues throughout history, exemplified by fatal crowd crushes during Roman Jubilees and modern Hajj pilgrimages. Hurlock notes that commercialization, like selling souvenirs, is an ancient practice, not a modern corruption. Political leaders have long harnessed pilgrimage for power, with Saudi rulers using the Hajj to bolster authority and the British Empire employing Thomas Cook to organize pilgrimages from India. The episode reveals how pilgrimages have been used for political protest, such as 19th-century national pilgrimages to Rome to support the imprisoned Pope. The tone is educational and conversational, diving deep into historical case studies with scholarly detail. Listeners interested in global history, religious studies, and the intersection of faith and politics will find this episode richly rewarding. Those seeking a light, narrative-driven story or a focus on a single religion might find the academic scope less engaging.

As heard by us

Pilgrimage is treated as more than church history, with Eva Peron used to widen the frame.

The book takes pilgrimage as a broad subject, moving from medieval pilgrimage, saints, and miracles into a modern example through Eva Peron. That wider reach is where the discussion starts to feel most alive, because it treats pilgrimage as political devotion as well as church…

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A patient look at how pilgrimage keeps changing across medieval and modern contexts.

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