The Stations of the Cross by Sarah Lenzi

I have had this on the to read list for years, I have a particular interest in the Stations of the Cross as the artistic response to the group of Stations can bring out some intriguing nuances.

But Sarah Lenzi is exploring the physical practice of the Stations – and their basic argument is to overturn the conventional narrative that the Stations were first walked in Jerusalem and then taken West.

Sarah Lenzi demonstrates that while their were pilgrims in Jerusalem from very early dates, their visits to the sites of the Passion were generally more akin to a touristic sight seeing than the spiritual practice of the Stations. Sites were not visited in any narrative order but rather for logistical convenience, and the sites of the Passion were mixed with other Biblical and non-Biblical sites of interest.

The origins of the Stations of the Cross can instead be found in the West, and only as and established spiritual practice were they latterly overlaid on the actual geography of Jerusalem.