Sign-In
Cart
A World Tour of Religion's Weirdest Hits
Paperback
HumorComparative ReligionGeneral World History
Currently unavailable to order
Please enter your email and a message will be sent to you when this product becomes available on our website.
Publisher: Dustin Gross
Published: Sep 9 2025
Pages: 152
Weight: 0.40
Height: 0.33 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Religion is humanity's oldest group project and possibly its weirdest. From child-eating gods and bronze bulls to talking oracles, penis parades, miracle bones, living mummies, and Wi-Fi holy water, this book takes you on a global tour of belief at its most theatrical. It is part travelogue through sacred oddities, part history of how fear, hope, and spectacle keep reinventing the divine.
Without sneering at sincere faith, Dustin Gross pulls the curtain on the rituals, scams, fervors, and festivals that made ordinary people do extraordinary things in the name of the gods. Greek cannibal myths become lessons about power. Carthaginian bonfires turn into a mirror for modern sacrifice. Medieval relic mania reads like a marketing masterclass. Japanese sokushinbutsu and Tibetan sky burials show how holiness can blur into horror. Digital age mashups prove that new technologies always find a way to look sacred.
It is funny, fast, and deeply sourced. Every chapter brings receipts in the back matter so the jokes land on a foundation of real history. If you like smart cultural tours with teeth, you will feel right at home in this temple of oddities.
The point is not that religion is ridiculous. The point is that humans are endlessly inventive when we go hunting for meaning. Sometimes we find beauty. Sometimes we find nonsense. Often we find both in the same pew.
Also from
Gross, Dustin
Also in
Humor
I Can't Believe I Did That: The Game That Gives You Points for Sharing Awkward, Awesome, and Unforgettable Memories: Card Games
Katcher, Neil
Nadelberg, David
Other
The Science Magpie: Fascinating Facts, Stories, Poems, Diagrams and Jokes Plucked from Science
Flynn, Simon
Paperback
Fixing Flamingos: And Other Solutions to the World's Least Pressing Problems
Rea, Brian
Brown, Lucienne
Paperback
How to Be a Cat: (Cat Books for Kids, Cat Gifts for Kids, Cat Picture Book)
Swerling, Lisa
Lazar, Ralph
Hardcover
The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts, and Reason
Chapo Trap House
Hardcover
Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers: A Little Book of Whimsy and Wisdom from the Files of the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Bake It Off: An Unofficial Taylor Swift-Inspired Cookbook for Every Era, from Breakfast to Midnights
Smith, Lindsey
Hardcover
Big Fan: Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love
Schur, Michael
Posnanski, Joe
Hardcover
Pardon My Book: Ten Years of the Best (and Worst) in Sports from Pardon My Take
Big Cat
Commenter, Pft
Hardcover
Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to '90s Sitcoms
Bennett, Geoff
Hardcover
We Are the World (Cup): A Personal History of the World's Greatest Sporting Event
Bennett, Roger
Hardcover
How to Grow Up Without Becoming a Grown-Up: Big Lessons from Little Kids
Shapiro-Barnum, Julian
Hardcover
Wtf America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy
Meiselas, Ben
Meiselas, Brett
Meiselas, Jordy
Hardcover
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Five Novels in One Outrageous Volume
Adams, Douglas
Paperback
The New Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Expert Advice for Extreme Situations
Piven, Joshua
Borgenicht, David
Hardcover
There Are Moms Way Worse Than You: Irrefutable Proof That You Are Indeed a Fantastic Parent
Boozan, Glenn
Hardcover
Not Today, Fascists: The Lies That Got Us Here, and the Truths That Will Reunite Us
Welch, Jennifer
Hardcover
How to Talk to Your Cat about Gun Safety: And Abstinence, Drugs, Satanism, and Other Dangers That Threaten Their Nine Lives
Auburn, Zachary
Paperback
Nobody Wants Your Sh*t: The Art of Decluttering Before You Die (New York Times Bestseller)
Condo, Messie
Hardcover