Description
Book SynopsisThis text investigates a number of religious leaders, healers, folk saints, and popular icons; seeking to identify their commonalities and discover how they speak to the same inner yearnings of human beings for gods and heroes.
Trade ReviewThis volume asks us again and again what is common among such figures as Israell holy men, an Argentinean dictator's wife, a Mexican folk healer, and Elvis Presley. It challenges us to avoid the dismissive, stereotypical 'something is screwed up with these people,' and to query honestly and patiently what it is that inspires others to congregate around these iuminous images. Something profoundly human resides in the varied manner in which people speak of and to these figures, travel considerable distance at considerable expense to places such as Espinazo, Fairmont, and Graceland, and seek tactile communication with a person now dead. - Miles E. Richardson, Louislana State University
