God's Lunatics

Among books about cults, false prophets, and the stranger corridors of faith, God's Lunatics stands alone, mostly because nobody else thought to compile all of it in one place. Michael Largo assembled a reference to the exalted and downright crazy lives of saints, prophets, cult leaders, martyrs, soothsayers, philosophers, and preachers throughout history.

The subtitle does honest work: lost souls, false prophets, martyred saints, murderous cults, demonic nuns, and other victims of man's eternal search for the divine. From ancient mystics to modern day televangelists, Largo documents what people have believed, who convinced them to believe it, and what it cost everyone involved.

Kirkus Reviews called it an encyclopedic romp through religious history's strangest characters, which captures the spirit of the thing. This is not a book that mocks belief. It is a book that takes belief seriously enough to write down exactly what happened, entry after entry, and lets the record speak in tongues for itself.

Readers who arrive curious about famous cult leaders will stay for the demonic nuns, the soothsayers, and the martyrs. The search for the divine is the oldest story humans tell, and this is the definitive catalogue of the people who told it strangest.