Random Gods. About People Who Unintentionally Became Deities

Since 1492, when Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of the New World and was proclaimed a messenger from the heavens, random gods have pursued our era. From Haile Selassie, proclaimed the Living God in Jamaica, to British Prince Philip,... who accidentally became a key figure in a new religion on an island in the southern Pacific, people who have become divine— precisely people— have appeared on every continent. And since these deifications always arise in moments of upheaval— civil wars, imperial conquests, revolutions— they can teach us much. Over five centuries, a pantheon of remarkable deities has formed in various corners of the globe, the study of which helps to find answers to complex questions about how our modern concept of religion was invented and why religion and politics are constantly intertwined in our supposedly secular age.