Jesus: A Pilgrimage

TLDR: “Lovely, personal story of a trip to the Holy Land”

Book review by Deane Barker • • tags: faith, jesus • 5 min read •
An image of the cover of the book "Jesus: A Pilgrimage"

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a travelogue by a Jesuit priest of a trip he took to the Holy Land with a friend. In it, he travels to different locations associated with Jesus’s ministry to follow in the footsteps of the Messiah.

He writes so well. It just flows very naturally, and he captured the tension between holy sites and commercialism. He and his friend get scammed a couple of times, and they fall into tourist traps, but they genuinely see some lively things.

One of the problems, it seems, with visiting the Holy Land, is figuring out where things happened. Lots of locations are disputed, and different people claim different things, depending on what can make them money. Additionally, there are places where Jesus might have actually visited, and then there are places that only became notable in the years since the Crucifixion – lots of sites from the early church and from the second millennium.

In each chapter, he details their visit to a site, and the reflects what that moment or story from the Gospels means in the context of Jesus and his ministry. He tries to put a very human spin on it – like, what would it be like for people who were actually there at the time.

I loved the book, and this surprised me because it’s very similar in subject and format to Walking the Bible, and I really didn’t enjoy that. I feel like maybe I should revisit it.

I may read this again in the near future. It feels like a book I should meditate on a little

Reread

Added on

I went right back through this, with a highlighter and a pencil. In particular was interested in cataloging all of the spritiual places they visited. I have a sudden interest in the physicality of Jesus.

Here’s a list of where they visited or mentioned, in the order they appeared in the book. AI helped me link most all of them to their corresponding Wikipedia page.

Many of the locations are disputed, and the author notes that some of them are clearly not in the location they claim to be. Yet others have become tourist traps run by businesspeople to which the location holds no religious or historical significance.

Here is a list of events the book covers or refers to. In some cases, the author visited the associated location, and in other places, he analyzed or even just referred to the event.

The events are in rough order in which they occured, historically. The book was organized that way, though I’m not sure if the trip was strictly chronologically scheduled.

The book as a whole is a remarkable look into the physical life of Jesus, where he lived and ministered.

Book Info

Author
James Martin
Year
Pages
524
Acquired
  • I have read this book. According to my records, I completed it on .
  • A hardcover copy of this book is currently in my home library.
Links to this – Book Covers
Links to this – Rereads

In late 2025, I started keeping track of multiple readings of titles. Here is a list of titles I have read more than once, with the number of readings. Note that the reread will appear in my reading list as well, in the chronological location when it occured

Links from this – Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses March 13, 2022

I didn’t like this. But what bothers me is that I don’t know why I didn’t like it . I am very interested in the subject matter. This should absolutely be a book I like. I have no idea why I couldn’t connect with it, but dreaded picking it up. It’s about a journalist who wanders around the Holy…