Rag and Bone - Softcover

Peter Manseau

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1615236546 ISBN 13: 9781615236541

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.;, 2009

Synopsis

A fascinating, intelligent, and sometimes funny tour of the human relics at the root of the world's major religions By examining relics-the bits and pieces of long-dead saints at the heart of nearly all religious traditions-Peter Manseau delivers a book about life, and about faith and how it is sustained. The result of wide travel and the author's own deep curiosity, filled with true tales of the living and dubious legends of the dead, Rag and Bone tells of a California seeker who ended up in a Jerusalem convent because of a nun's disembodied hand; a French forensics expert who travels on the metro with the rib of a saint; two young brothers who collect tickets at a Syrian mosque, studying English beside a hair from the Prophet Muhammad's beard; and many other stories, myths, and peculiar histories. With these, and an array of other digits, limbs, and bones, Manseau provides a respectful, witty, informed, inquisitive, thoughtful, and fascinating look into the "primordial strangeness that is at the heart of belief," and the place where the abstractions of faith meet the realities of physical objects, of rags and bones.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.;
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1615236546
• ISBN 13: 9781615236541
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1