Böcker av Kathryn Hurlock

This year, as they have for millennia, people will set out on pilgrimages. From Mecca to the Outer Hebrides, each of these journeys will be filled with spiritual and personal meaning - and as well as political statements, cultural battlegrounds and contested stories. Holy Places follows the trail of pilgrimage from the humble origins of the greatest faiths to sites of modern devotion and celebrity. In Rome, pilgrimage shaped the city's streets in ways still visible today. Muxima in Angola testifies to the violent blending of Christianity and indigenous tradition. Tai Shan has helped generations of Chinese leaders cement power, while pilgrims to the Ganges must grapple with modern pollution as they seek spiritual purity in its waters. Pilgrimages have meant the start of faiths, the birth of cultures and the end of civilizations. Holy Places wrestles with the complex histories and contemporary endurance of one of our most fundamental human urges.

Medieval Welsh Pilgrimage, c.1100-1500 examines one of the most popular expressions of religious belief in medieval Europe-from the promotion of particular sites for political, religious, and financial reasons to the experience of pilgrims and their impact on the Welsh landscape.

An examination into two of the most important activities undertaken by the Normans.

A thematic survey of the impact of crusading on Britain and Ireland, from the First Crusade to the end of the thirteenth century. Hurlock examines the relationship between high medieval British society and crusading, exploring key areas such as the political use of crusades, the papacy's choice of crusaders, and the role of the military orders.