What do you think?
Rate this book
Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE , THE IRISH TIMES AND THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
A provocative history of men who were worshipped as gods that illuminates the connection between power and religion and the role of divinity in a secular age
Ever since 1492, when Christopher Columbus made landfall in the New World and was hailed as a heavenly being, the accidental god has haunted the modern age. From Haile Selassie, acclaimed as the Living God in Jamaica, to Britain’s Prince Philip, who became the unlikely center of a new religion on a South Pacific island, men made divine―always men―have appeared on every continent. And because these deifications always emerge at moments of turbulence―civil wars, imperial conquest, revolutions―they have much to teach us.
In a revelatory history spanning five centuries, a cast of surprising deities helps to shed light on the thorny questions of how our modern concept of “religion” was invented; why religion and politics are perpetually entangled in our supposedly secular age; and how the power to call someone divine has been used and abused by both oppressors and the oppressed. From nationalist uprisings in India to Nigerien spirit possession cults, Anna Della Subin explores how deification has been a means of defiance for colonized peoples. Conversely, we see how Columbus, Cortés, and other white explorers amplified stories of their godhood to justify their dominion over native peoples, setting into motion the currents of racism and exclusion that have plagued the New World ever since they touched its shores.
At once deeply learned and delightfully antic, Accidental Gods offers an unusual keyhole through which to observe the creation of our modern world. It is that rare a lyrical, entertaining work of ideas, one that marks the debut of a remarkable literary career.
A provocative history of men who were worshipped as gods that illuminates the connection between power and religion and the role of divinity in a secular age
Ever since 1492, when Christopher Columbus made landfall in the New World and was hailed as a heavenly being, the accidental god has haunted the modern age. From Haile Selassie, acclaimed as the Living God in Jamaica, to Britain’s Prince Philip, who became the unlikely center of a new religion on a South Pacific island, men made divine―always men―have appeared on every continent. And because these deifications always emerge at moments of turbulence―civil wars, imperial conquest, revolutions―they have much to teach us.
In a revelatory history spanning five centuries, a cast of surprising deities helps to shed light on the thorny questions of how our modern concept of “religion” was invented; why religion and politics are perpetually entangled in our supposedly secular age; and how the power to call someone divine has been used and abused by both oppressors and the oppressed. From nationalist uprisings in India to Nigerien spirit possession cults, Anna Della Subin explores how deification has been a means of defiance for colonized peoples. Conversely, we see how Columbus, Cortés, and other white explorers amplified stories of their godhood to justify their dominion over native peoples, setting into motion the currents of racism and exclusion that have plagued the New World ever since they touched its shores.
At once deeply learned and delightfully antic, Accidental Gods offers an unusual keyhole through which to observe the creation of our modern world. It is that rare a lyrical, entertaining work of ideas, one that marks the debut of a remarkable literary career.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published July 13, 2021
About the author
Anna Della Subin
7 books24 followersAnna Della Subin writes about sleepwalkers, grave worship, imperial Ethiopian court etiquette, visions of the flood, thirteenth-century oculists, occultists, cricket, ritualized mutiny, Dr. Death's childhood, dreams of 9/11, the politics of the afterlife, 300-year naps.
She is a Senior Editor at Bidoun, the award-winning publishing and curatorial initiative focused on the Middle East and its diasporas. Anna Della studied philosophy and classics at the University of Chicago and the history of religion at Harvard Divinity School.
Accidental Gods, a history of men inadvertently turned into deities, is forthcoming from Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt in the US and Granta in the UK.
She is a Senior Editor at Bidoun, the award-winning publishing and curatorial initiative focused on the Middle East and its diasporas. Anna Della studied philosophy and classics at the University of Chicago and the history of religion at Harvard Divinity School.
Accidental Gods, a history of men inadvertently turned into deities, is forthcoming from Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt in the US and Granta in the UK.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
January 23, 2022
Deification has been defiance: from the depths of abjection, creating gods has been a way to imagine alternative political futures, wrest back sovereignty, and catch power.--------------------------------------
Gods are born ex-nihilo and out of lotuses, from the white blood of the sea-foam, or the earwax of a bigger god. They are also birthed on dining room tables and when spectacles of power are taken too far. They are born when men find themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time. Gods are made in sudden deaths, violent accidents, they ascend in the smoke of a pyre, or wait, in their tombs, for offerings of cigars. But gods are also created through storytelling, through history-writing, cross-referencing, footnoting, repeating.Heaven knows, there are plenty of men who think they are god’s gift to humanity. For most of them we roll our eyes and pretend to see a friend across the room that we simply must go to, or vote for anyone else. Serious problems occur when the number of foolish people in a community so outnumbers those with brains that the self-deified persuades enough sheeple that he is who he imagines himself to be. History is far too rich with examples of the Badlands lyric poor man wants to be rich, rich man wants to be king, and a king ain't satisfied 'til he rules everything. Another, non-rhyming, way to put that last bit is that a king is not satisfied until he becomes a god. Roman emperors were notorious for this brand of nonsense. The appeal of deification is strong. A comparable theological tool has been the Divine Right of Kings, typically used to justify rule over white subjects in Europe. And nicely translated into Manifest Destiny in justifying American expansion westward. As the author notes, sometimes those engaging in apotheosis are crazy like a fox, employing a methodology that is overtly religious for a covertly political aim. Consider how so many evangelicals in the USA, led by their institutional leaders, have made common cause with the most amoral president in American history, claiming his selection by God. You really can fool some of the people all the time.
Anna Della Subin - image from Nina Subin Photography, by Nina Subin
But there are others who find themselves regarded as divine without really trying. Anna Della Subin looks at the history of many people who have been deemed to have risen beyond the merely mortal, whether they were still alive or not. She uses a broad brush for who counts in that list.
There is no single definition of what it means to be a god, or divine. Divinity emerges not as an absolute state, but a spectrum, able to encompass an entire range of meta-persons: living gods, demigods, avatars, ancestor deities, divine spirits who possess human bodies in a trance.I would add saints to that list, the nyads and dryads of Christianity. Surely prophets could find a cozy place on the spectrum, not to mention heroes of ancient Greek legend, intercessors called karāmāt in Islam, and how about those supposedly “chosen” by god for this or that. Many a king certainly claimed a divine right to rule. But who gets to decide who is a prophet, or a hero, or a saint? Yes, I know the RC canonizes individuals as saints for its institution, but there are plenty of candidates, deemed saints by large numbers of people, who never receive the official imprimatur. Can public opinion alone certify sainthood? Was Mother Teresa a saint before the Church hierarchy canonized her, or did she have to wait until her ticket number was called and her application stamped by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints? Point is, divinity is squishy, and often designated by popular will (with or without political manipulation) rather than bestowed by those sitting atop religious institutions.
For good or ill, most of us are touched by religion, and take on many of its beliefs, whether knowingly or by osmosis. For example, according to western religions, there are the living and the dead, and never the twain shall meet. Well, except for carve-out exceptions here and there. (for raising the debt ceiling, maybe?) Jesus pops to mind. Human? Divine? Less-filling? Tastes great? Even his mother, who supposedly died a natural death was “assumed” up to heaven, her tomb having been found empty on day three post-mortem. Thus, the rather large notion of Mary’s Assumption. And you know what happens when you assume. Not usually physical elevation to another plane of existence. But this line was not always thought to be so fixed. Even in the time of Jesus, the barrier between here and there was seen as more of a curtain than a firewall. But to us in the 21st century it seems particularly strange that people anywhere believed that human beings could become gods. (Well, I hereby offer a carve-out for Sondheim. Our Stephen, who art on Broadway, hallowed be thy name) Yet many have been deified, often without their permission, and sometimes over their considerable objections. (not The Divine Miss M, though) The Pythons were on to something in The Life of Brian. “He’s not the Messiah. He’s a very naughty boy.” Surely post-mortem Elvis sightings fit into this array somewhere.
Thus the folks Subin writes of here. The book is divided into a trinity of parts. In the first she covers in detail the divination of Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Prince Phillip of the UK, and General Douglas MacArthur. Part I goes into considerable detail about Selassie, and it is all incredibly fascinating, including the use of his supposed divinity by Jamaican politicians for their own ends. Prince Phillip was imagined to be divine by the residents of what is now Vanuatu. It was news to him. It was likely sourced in the knowledge that he was in a position to deliver considerable physical materials to the island, so what could it hurt to feed his ego by claiming godhood for him, if there was even a chance that he might come through with some much-needed supplies. MacArthur was raised to divinity on multiple continents, and in diverse ways. If Stalin, in attempting to minimize the military impact of religion, asked How many divisions has the Pope? had substituted “Pipe” for ”Pope,” considering MacArthur’s apotheosized position, he would have gotten a very different answer.
7 foot balsa rendering of MacArthur built to lead an army of wooden figures against dark spiritual forces - Image from University of Chicago
The section continues, noting several colonial military sorts who were raised up by third-world locals.
Part II offers many more examples of westerners being viewed as gods by the colonized. Queen Victoria is among those, although her newly exalted status did not soften her opposition to women’s suffrage. The local practice of Sati, Hindu widows immolating themselves on their late husbands’ biers, comes in for a look, as those who went through this were deemed holy.
Annie Besant - image from BBC Sounds
There is an immersive tale of Annie Besant, of the Theosophist religion, a supposed single path to divinity, joining the beliefs of all religions, and the rise and fall and rise of Krishnamurti, a boy believed divine, who was nurtured by the Theosophists, and who would ultimately follow his own path. This is a story worthy of its own book, and Netflix mini-series.
Krishnamurti - image from the Theosophical Library
Subin takes us into the 20th century in which there were some in India who viewed Hitler as (yet another) avatar of Vishnu, and later, according to some, Vish reappears in the person of U.S. president Dwight David Eisenhower, who might fit the bill a bit better, given that he had control of nuclear arms and could, with such god-like power, become a literal destroyer of worlds.
Ike visits India in 1959- image from Outlook India
Subin also looks at the myth-making around the early European visits to the New World. Expedition leaders said that the locals revered them as gods, but it is quite possible, given that they did not at all speak the local patois, that the New Worlders had been significantly misquoted. She points out that the claims added heft to the already strained reasoning being crafted to justify enslaving the indigenous people and seizing their land, in seeing them as too barbaric, and simple-minded to rule over their own affairs.
This book is as much about colonialism as it is about religion. I was shocked, frankly, at how many cases Subin cites of people (usually public officials of one sort or another), being worshipped as gods in various places. Most often, in this telling, anyway, it is white colonials being raised up by the colonized. Sometimes while still with us. Prince Phillip, for example, was worshipped while still in his prime. Captain Cook, on the other hand, was seen as a deity both before and after he had been the long pig main course in a Hawaiian feast. Julius Caesar could probably relate. (Et yet, Brute?)
Subin makes a case for apotheosis being primarily a white colonial enterprise, not that Westerners necessarily went to colonial nations expecting to be worshipped, but they were more than happy to take advantage of the local predilections when it suited their needs.
She also writes about the consolidation of religions, particularly the many faiths that were lumped together under the heading of Hinduism. Animism to ancestor worship to shamanism to localized religions, to world religions seems much like the global consolidation of small businesses to large businesses to corporations to trans-national corporations in the economic sphere, and toward a similar purpose.
So, there is a huge lot to unpack in this book. And not just the specific history of humans being worshipped as something more. There is a lot in here about the whiteness infused in colonialism and the cited examples of apotheosis. There is a mind-bending discussion about whether we are people made in god’s image, and the implications of religions that hold that image as reflecting the color of their skin alone.
I have some gripes, per usual. While I loved the deep-dig stories about several of the characters portrayed here (Anne Besant, Krishnamurti, Hailie Selassie, et al) I often felt bogged down in a firehose flow of names, places, and dates where accidental god-hood took place. Reading in the more survey-report sections became a slog. Which is one reason why this review is being posted two weeks post publication, not the Friday immediately before or after. I was not exactly dashing back to my computer to read. Maybe it is like taking too large a slice of a torte, and being unable to finish it.
Some dismissive items bugged me. There is a reference early on (in the wake of the pale world’s first “internecine” war [WW I]) to WW I, which seems remarkably oblivious regarding the centuries of war waged by European nations on each other.
I also caught a whiff of what I perceived, correctly or not, as woke lecturing, with only whiteness, in the guise of the association of godliness with whiteness by the colonial powers, at fault for all the world’s ills. I make no argument with her perception of colonial whitewashing of history, but aren’t other invasive cultures worth at least a mention? Were there no examples to be found of the people subjected by the Japanese, the Chinese, by Genghis Khan, by Incas, Aztecs and other expansive cultures encountering the same sort of deification? I get the sense that she is rooting for the elimination of all authority held by Caucasians.
White supremacy will not leave us until we reject the divinity of whiteness. White is a moral choice, as James Baldwin writes. Faced with the choice, I blush and refuse.I take issue with this. While I agree that white supremacy is of a cloth with an exclusively white divinity and that both deserve to be rejected, I feel no personal reason to blush at being white. My working-class ancestors were being exploited by their rulers in diverse European nations when Conquistadors and explorers of various maritime powers were seizing lands in the New World from the residents they found there. Horrible? Of course. But not a cause to blanket-blame white people. For the moment at least, and despite the history, which is nicely referenced in the book, of how we came to use the mislabel of race, it remains a common element of today’s world. As such, it is not a moral choice to refuse or to accept being white. It just is. And I, for one, make no apology for DNA over which I had no choice.
Gripes over, there is much in Accidental Gods that is eye-opening and fascinating, with several detailed stories that could each justify their own books, a serious examination of deification in several contexts, and gobs of unexpected information, if a bit too much at times.
Were these deified people gods? Of course not. They were human beings who were born, lived and died like the rest of us. Insisting that they are deities is some hi-test bullshit. That said, bovine droppings may smell bad, but mix them with some compost and you can make a meaningful fertilizer, a popular ingredient in terrorist explosives. And deified humans have proven quite useful in fueling many a sociopolitical crop.
It doesn’t matter whether anyone believes it or not; belief is not the right question to ask. As Merton wrote, “When a myth-dream is constantly in the papers and on TV, it seems pretty real!” The religion of Philip is real because it has been told and retold, by South Pacific priests and BBC storytellers, by journalists and Palace press officers, in a continuous, mutual myth-making over the course of forty years.
Review posted – December 24, 2021
Publication date – December 7, 2021
This review has been cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews. Stop by and say Hi!
I received an e-ARE of Accidental Gods from Holt in return for my eternal blessings upon them as their rightful and all-powerful ruler. Particular blessings upon Maia for her help in arranging this miracle.
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Instagram, and Twitter pages
Item of Interest from the author
-----London Review of Books - Several Subin pieces for LRB
-----The Guardian - How to kill a god: the myth of Captain Cook shows how the heroes of empire will fall - an edited excerpt
Items of Interest
----- General MacArthur among the Guna: The Aesthetics of Power and Alterity in an Amerindian Society
-----The Guardian – 11/27/21 - ‘There was a prophecy I would come’: the western men who think they are South Pacific kings by Christopher Lloyd
-----George Carlin: Stand Up About Religion
March 26, 2022
Fails to live up to what could have been an interesting book on the history of people worshiped as gods, instead being kind of a slog through matter at least as much political and screed-y as religious.
In fact, a book half this size that was more straightforward and stayed on topic and had a more compelling narrative arc could have been a very good book and even enjoyable to read. This book, no.
I mainly picked it up to read about Haile Selassie and maybe a bit about Prince Philip. The rest was very meh. The treatment of even those two more interesting people was also kind of meh. And those were at the start of the book, so it was mostly downhill from there. The part about Captain Cook was interesting, but I had never heard the story of his demise told seriously before, so...mileage may vary on that one.
Also, I got the impression that the author low-key hated everyone she wrote about from start to finish. I cannot fathom writing an approximately 400-page book about people I hate. How does one stay motivated??
Overall, it's just not a terribly good book, and considering that, it is a very long one. I would recommend having at least some background in Eastern Religions, especially Hinduism, to appreciate some of the later parts.
In fact, a book half this size that was more straightforward and stayed on topic and had a more compelling narrative arc could have been a very good book and even enjoyable to read. This book, no.
I mainly picked it up to read about Haile Selassie and maybe a bit about Prince Philip. The rest was very meh. The treatment of even those two more interesting people was also kind of meh. And those were at the start of the book, so it was mostly downhill from there. The part about Captain Cook was interesting, but I had never heard the story of his demise told seriously before, so...mileage may vary on that one.
Also, I got the impression that the author low-key hated everyone she wrote about from start to finish. I cannot fathom writing an approximately 400-page book about people I hate. How does one stay motivated??
Overall, it's just not a terribly good book, and considering that, it is a very long one. I would recommend having at least some background in Eastern Religions, especially Hinduism, to appreciate some of the later parts.
June 8, 2021
(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)
Anna Della Subin's first published work is centered around a topic that I personally have never seen explored in such focus and detail before - unintentionally deified men. A few of these were figures that I was broadly familiar with beforehand, like Halie Selassie and his central role in the Rasta faith and early European explorers like Columbus and Cortés. There were many more whose unplanned divinity was news to me, such as Prince Philip’s godhood in what is today the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu the several different incarnations that General Douglas has taken, and the myriad of assorted figures that have received some degree of divinity in India. To say the least, shortly after I started reading Accidental Gods I quickly found myself very absorbed.
What really makes this book shine is how Subin goes above and beyond. A lesser author and scholar may have been perfectly content to have the book just be a collection of interesting instances of bestowed godhood. And an even lesser author may have done the same while reducing many of the adherents of several of the mentioned cults and religious movements into curious spectacles for readers to gawk at, even unintentionally so. Such was not the case whatsoever here. First of all, Subin takes care to detail the full contexts of where the various deifications originated. By telling these stories as completely as she can in the confines of her own work, the author both treats different believer groups with respect and understanding, but also ends up with more complex narratives that are genuinely more fascinating than the lesser descriptions that could have been. On top of that, Subin uses the subject matter as an opportunity to tackle an assortment of different matters of religion. The dynamics of religion and power receive quite a lot of attention in particular, and a good deal of the book is spent shining a light both on instances where godhood was used intentionally as a tool in an arsenal of exploitation and justification of oppression and also in cases where a colonized or oppressed group flipped the script and found a means of resistance through a subversive faith. All in all, it’s extremely impressive how Subin elevates her subject material from merely interesting to an eye-opening work that leaves much to mentally chew on for a long while afterward.
It’s my hope that Subin’s first publication is just the first of many. This was one of the most intriguing nonfiction reads I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying so far this year, and I can hardly wait to see what subject will receive the author’s thoughtful coverage and analysis next.
Anna Della Subin's first published work is centered around a topic that I personally have never seen explored in such focus and detail before - unintentionally deified men. A few of these were figures that I was broadly familiar with beforehand, like Halie Selassie and his central role in the Rasta faith and early European explorers like Columbus and Cortés. There were many more whose unplanned divinity was news to me, such as Prince Philip’s godhood in what is today the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu the several different incarnations that General Douglas has taken, and the myriad of assorted figures that have received some degree of divinity in India. To say the least, shortly after I started reading Accidental Gods I quickly found myself very absorbed.
What really makes this book shine is how Subin goes above and beyond. A lesser author and scholar may have been perfectly content to have the book just be a collection of interesting instances of bestowed godhood. And an even lesser author may have done the same while reducing many of the adherents of several of the mentioned cults and religious movements into curious spectacles for readers to gawk at, even unintentionally so. Such was not the case whatsoever here. First of all, Subin takes care to detail the full contexts of where the various deifications originated. By telling these stories as completely as she can in the confines of her own work, the author both treats different believer groups with respect and understanding, but also ends up with more complex narratives that are genuinely more fascinating than the lesser descriptions that could have been. On top of that, Subin uses the subject matter as an opportunity to tackle an assortment of different matters of religion. The dynamics of religion and power receive quite a lot of attention in particular, and a good deal of the book is spent shining a light both on instances where godhood was used intentionally as a tool in an arsenal of exploitation and justification of oppression and also in cases where a colonized or oppressed group flipped the script and found a means of resistance through a subversive faith. All in all, it’s extremely impressive how Subin elevates her subject material from merely interesting to an eye-opening work that leaves much to mentally chew on for a long while afterward.
It’s my hope that Subin’s first publication is just the first of many. This was one of the most intriguing nonfiction reads I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying so far this year, and I can hardly wait to see what subject will receive the author’s thoughtful coverage and analysis next.
July 26, 2021
Accidental Gods by Anna Della Subin is a fascinating and wonderful read about history. Accidental Gods is a highly readable and highly thought-provoking book. It centers on the stories of various historical figures (for example, Haile Selassie, Prince Philip, Douglas MacArthur, etc.) who have been unwittingly worshiped worldwide over time. It is a fantastic novel with fantastic stories.
March 23, 2024
This book has been lavishly praised, over-praised I would say, I am struggling to see why the author's rather platitudinous, and over written confections, have attracted such praise, particularly when it is full of silly errors not simply of facts but of which would contradict her arguments. The most glaring of which is, in connection with various Pacific cults, her statement that these cults arose, and in part were given impetus amongst Pacific islanders, by there seeing the black and white soldiers of the US army working and living together in WWII and, primarily because this free an easy race relations by Americans was such a contrast to the colonial powers. Whatever Ms Subin may or may not know about men becoming gods she knows absolutely nothing about the US army in WWII - no black and white US army soldiers lived, worked or fought together in WWII - the US army was a segregated army of segregated and racist society - it was only desegregated in 1948.
When authors display such basic ignorance it sends up all sorts of warning bells for me and I will admit that I probably only read half of this book and had to skim through the rest. There are times when the author's obsession with seeing Cortez, Pizarro and the other early conquistadors as well as colonial administrators or soldiers such John Nicholson as being viewed as or worshipped as gods is deeply problematic. Even though she does provide some perspective in terms of the Cortez and Pizarro overall her concentration almost exclusively on text written by Europeans describing what Mexicans, Peruvians or Indians believed or were doing, particularly when it could be presented to bolster white superiority is deeply problematic. I don't know any work on the conquest by Spain in the new world, outside of the Von Daniken pop histories, which believes the returning 'White' god belief played any significant role in the destruction of the Aztec or Inca empires.
The problem with this book is that the subject is fascinating but the author's failure to bring any sense of real magic to her prose or insight into the subject just makes it boring. For that reason alone I wouldn't recommend it but the author's manifold failures and inaccuracies make the book downright misleading and dangerously close to insulting many cultures.
When authors display such basic ignorance it sends up all sorts of warning bells for me and I will admit that I probably only read half of this book and had to skim through the rest. There are times when the author's obsession with seeing Cortez, Pizarro and the other early conquistadors as well as colonial administrators or soldiers such John Nicholson as being viewed as or worshipped as gods is deeply problematic. Even though she does provide some perspective in terms of the Cortez and Pizarro overall her concentration almost exclusively on text written by Europeans describing what Mexicans, Peruvians or Indians believed or were doing, particularly when it could be presented to bolster white superiority is deeply problematic. I don't know any work on the conquest by Spain in the new world, outside of the Von Daniken pop histories, which believes the returning 'White' god belief played any significant role in the destruction of the Aztec or Inca empires.
The problem with this book is that the subject is fascinating but the author's failure to bring any sense of real magic to her prose or insight into the subject just makes it boring. For that reason alone I wouldn't recommend it but the author's manifold failures and inaccuracies make the book downright misleading and dangerously close to insulting many cultures.
July 18, 2022
Lacks a conciseness, which when paired with its repetitiveness, makes it feel like a never-ending slog through what should be interesting material. Easily could have been half the size and conveyed the same points. One of my biggest peeves is when authors provide unnecessary details about minor characters from a single chapter's story. If a person isn't recurring through the book, they don't need a verbose biography. And inexplicably, the pictures don't have any text saying what they are. It was rarely clear what the picture was and how it related to the text.
April 12, 2022
An absolutely fascinating book that makes sense of the seemingly inexplicable deification of certain figures in modern history. Spoiler alert: colonialism is mostly to blame
February 18, 2023
More philosophical tour of times when people thought of other people as gods developed religions around them. I wasn’t sure what the “ so what” was.
September 20, 2021
Accidental Gods is a collection of stories of men (and women, but the book focuses mostly on men) who became gods. Their deification was sometimes accidental, sometimes unintentional, but what I loved about this book is how Subin focuses a lot on how the divinity gave the new "gods" powers to exploit and oppress, and how happily they used that power. The men Subin tells us about are not only the most famous cases like Halie Selassie, but also the lesser-known ones, like a 19th-century British army officer, John Nicholson. Subin writes about the strong connection between deification and colonialism, and how big of a role race played in those relationships.
While full of historical facts and dates, this book is so intriguing and fascinating that I couldn't put it down. I loved how complex and detailed it was, and how everything ties to modern times. I also loved that Subin doesn't treat the people believing in those "gods" with a lack of respect - making fun of people who worship Prince Philip sounds like a pretty easy thing to do - but instead, she explains how those people ended up there with a lot of understanding and care.
While full of historical facts and dates, this book is so intriguing and fascinating that I couldn't put it down. I loved how complex and detailed it was, and how everything ties to modern times. I also loved that Subin doesn't treat the people believing in those "gods" with a lack of respect - making fun of people who worship Prince Philip sounds like a pretty easy thing to do - but instead, she explains how those people ended up there with a lot of understanding and care.
January 3, 2022
I thought I would be reading a range of anecdotes of so called "cargo cults" where strangers showing up in "exotic" lands are thought to be gods. Well, this author schooled me and I am delighted she did.
This is a brilliant book, incredibly deep and far reaching in its research, daunting in its scope, well interconnected in its execution, and demonstrative of a gift for language and vocabulary. Ms. Subin attempts--and succeeds-- to assess all the incidents of this "men thought to be gods" paradigm drama across cultures and through time, from both perspectives, both before and after, whenever possible. This in itself is quite a feat, but she goes one step farther, overlaying it into a framework to analyze interconnections with the rise and spread of capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, sexism, and racism, with a focus on white supremacy. It turns out these fascinating encounters in which gods are supposed or claimed provide eye-opening ways into a deeper understanding of how all these isms are truly interrelated to each other.
This is a brilliant book, incredibly deep and far reaching in its research, daunting in its scope, well interconnected in its execution, and demonstrative of a gift for language and vocabulary. Ms. Subin attempts--and succeeds-- to assess all the incidents of this "men thought to be gods" paradigm drama across cultures and through time, from both perspectives, both before and after, whenever possible. This in itself is quite a feat, but she goes one step farther, overlaying it into a framework to analyze interconnections with the rise and spread of capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, sexism, and racism, with a focus on white supremacy. It turns out these fascinating encounters in which gods are supposed or claimed provide eye-opening ways into a deeper understanding of how all these isms are truly interrelated to each other.
November 25, 2022
the actual read is maybe more like 3.5 stars - 100 pages too long, in places overstuffed and overwritten, at least one chapter could have been cut entirely without hurting my feelings ("the apotheosis of nathaniel tarn"), loops back and goes over things more than it needs to. but the ideas are 6+ stars. maybe some of the anthropology/study of religion stuff isn't breaking news but it rattled my cage good. particularly the connection between religion and the invention/ongoing bad idea of race. i feel like the title/subtitle kinda pigeonholed this as nonfiction quirk when it's actually the good kind of academic writing - feral act of intellect. i nominate anna della subin to write a whole book about theosophy next.
January 13, 2023
Pretty fascinating how so much of the search for the divine is tied up with colonialism
March 12, 2022
There’s plenty of histories of religion, but this takes an entirely novel tack, by looking at all of the ways in which men (and a few women) have been elevated to godhood of one kind or another in the past several hundred years. The early chapters, focusing on men elevated against their will, and often against their express wishes (think Haile Salasse and Rastafarianism) are the best. It will surprise no one to find that Prince Phillip of England is just about the only example of someone who seems to enjoy their apotheosis. Later chapters become less focused, dealing with wider societal currents, rather than individuals, but it’s still an interesting study of comparative religion.
Subin writes clearly, about both religion and history, and about a variety of cultures. It’s a wide ranging, humane look at the porous line between men and gods, and those who straddle it. Well worth the read.
Subin writes clearly, about both religion and history, and about a variety of cultures. It’s a wide ranging, humane look at the porous line between men and gods, and those who straddle it. Well worth the read.
January 3, 2023
A masterpiece of story telling, where Subin shows that the esoteric, mysterious, and magical still exist but are perhaps hiding, but do occasionally come to the surface, even in today’s hyperrealist world.
Early on, Subin makes two interesting points in passing. First, early Christians applied the terms ‘god’, ‘son of God’, etc, to Jesus, exactly to counter the terms used in the deification of those leading the empire which murdered him as a common criminal.
Second, though during early Christianity, and specifically in pagan circles, men could become gods, with the council of Nicaea, God’s godliness became explicitly separate from his human condition, precluding, in the Christian tradition, from then-on forward, men from becoming godly.
The book is really three collections of related narratives.
The first on men becoming gods, the second on dead colonial administrators in India ending up with shrines, the third on how the white man became godlike in the Americas.
In the first section, the first story is the accidental modern god that amassed the largest following, Haile Selase, Ras Tafari.
Second is a bit chaotic, if fascinating, and tells of the divination of Prince Philip in the New Hebrides, Vanuatu.
Subin clearly explains that the associated term ‘cargo cult’ is racist, deriving from a period when colonizers flew local leaders to Australia to show the associated production processes of ‘cargo’, first used by the Japanese to placate islanders in the pacific. Cargo is not bestowed from heaven, but made by human hands.
In addition, the term shifts attention away from colonial and capitalist exploitation.
The third is on four separate narratives through which Douglas MacArthur was deified, including one in post World War 2 Japan. There, MacArthur was fired by Truman, and an eradication of the godly position of the general followed the removal of the godlike status of his predecessor, the emperor of Japan.
Some turned to Zamenhof, inventor of Esperanto.
A fourth chapter on the deification of colonial administrators in, mostly, Africa, primarily as kinds of spirits possessing their subjects temporarily, making demands of offerings, but also providing cures and solutions.
Fetishes, 'dolls', feature prominently.
Burn: “If Africans allegedly defied objects, enlightenment theorists deified concepts, forging abstract ideas such as race, religion, politics, sovereignty, and freedom, turning them into disembodied truths that transcended place or history.” And “what philosophers derided as error and unreason was actually a disagreement between certain Europeans and Africans about the proper worth, not of things, but of people. It revealed how correct knowledge about divinity is never a matter of the best doctrine but of who possesses the more powerful army“.
More: “While fetishes made by African priests were denigrated as irrational, the core of the capitalist marketplace [of commodity fetishism, as per Marx] has long been viewed as the epitome of rationalism.”
The fifth on the accidental deification of some anthropologists, with a focus on a friend of the author, Nathanial Tarn.
The second section of the book is on the deification and veneration of British colonial administrators and officers. “Deification was not a mode of honoring them, but a way to mediate with their power, a means for worshippers to try and shift the tides of individual and collective fates.”
Subin relates how our modern understanding of ‘religion’ is a fairly recent invention, only solidifying in the 19th century, and squarely rests on an interpretation of Christianity being the most 'pure'.
She starts by describing the divination of John Nicholson, a Brit in the colonial service who was canonised by Baden Powell and deified by his local subordinates, while later analyses absolved the colonial context of his behaviour as the source of at least some of his abuse.
A piece on Indian women throwing themselves in the fire of their deceased husbands, and another on theosophy, the late 19th century notion, springing from Madame Blavatsky, stating that all religions are one. It turns out that Ghandi started his journey towards self rule, being reintroduced to his own religion via the theosophists.
The theosophical movement ended with a bit of a bang; the boy that was identified as the future vessel of God on earth, Krishnamurti, after some 20 years of grooming, actually appeared to receive God inside of him and then claimed that he is in everyone and everyone can have the same experience, then disbanding the movement around him in 1929, in Ommen, in the Netherlands, of all places.
The section on India ends with a gorgeous story of an Indian revering Trump as a god. He started fasting when Trump was diagnosed with COVID, and then died on the day Trump announced having beaten the infection.
The final section of the book, perhaps a tad convoluted, is on how the myth of white divinity was established in the Americas, first through the recognition of European explorers as gods at the discovery of the Americas, eventually flowing into notions of white supremacy in the US.
In passing, Subin states that the 60 million inhabitants that died after this conquest, and the resulting resurgence of forests were once they lived, caused the global cooling of the mini ice age in the late Middle Ages.
This section ends with more recent scholars questioning the nature of the Christian divinity. Is God a white supremacist? They essentially conclude that God either doesn’t exist, is an asshole, or is powerless.
Early on, Subin makes two interesting points in passing. First, early Christians applied the terms ‘god’, ‘son of God’, etc, to Jesus, exactly to counter the terms used in the deification of those leading the empire which murdered him as a common criminal.
Second, though during early Christianity, and specifically in pagan circles, men could become gods, with the council of Nicaea, God’s godliness became explicitly separate from his human condition, precluding, in the Christian tradition, from then-on forward, men from becoming godly.
The book is really three collections of related narratives.
The first on men becoming gods, the second on dead colonial administrators in India ending up with shrines, the third on how the white man became godlike in the Americas.
In the first section, the first story is the accidental modern god that amassed the largest following, Haile Selase, Ras Tafari.
Second is a bit chaotic, if fascinating, and tells of the divination of Prince Philip in the New Hebrides, Vanuatu.
Subin clearly explains that the associated term ‘cargo cult’ is racist, deriving from a period when colonizers flew local leaders to Australia to show the associated production processes of ‘cargo’, first used by the Japanese to placate islanders in the pacific. Cargo is not bestowed from heaven, but made by human hands.
In addition, the term shifts attention away from colonial and capitalist exploitation.
The third is on four separate narratives through which Douglas MacArthur was deified, including one in post World War 2 Japan. There, MacArthur was fired by Truman, and an eradication of the godly position of the general followed the removal of the godlike status of his predecessor, the emperor of Japan.
Some turned to Zamenhof, inventor of Esperanto.
A fourth chapter on the deification of colonial administrators in, mostly, Africa, primarily as kinds of spirits possessing their subjects temporarily, making demands of offerings, but also providing cures and solutions.
Fetishes, 'dolls', feature prominently.
Burn: “If Africans allegedly defied objects, enlightenment theorists deified concepts, forging abstract ideas such as race, religion, politics, sovereignty, and freedom, turning them into disembodied truths that transcended place or history.” And “what philosophers derided as error and unreason was actually a disagreement between certain Europeans and Africans about the proper worth, not of things, but of people. It revealed how correct knowledge about divinity is never a matter of the best doctrine but of who possesses the more powerful army“.
More: “While fetishes made by African priests were denigrated as irrational, the core of the capitalist marketplace [of commodity fetishism, as per Marx] has long been viewed as the epitome of rationalism.”
The fifth on the accidental deification of some anthropologists, with a focus on a friend of the author, Nathanial Tarn.
The second section of the book is on the deification and veneration of British colonial administrators and officers. “Deification was not a mode of honoring them, but a way to mediate with their power, a means for worshippers to try and shift the tides of individual and collective fates.”
Subin relates how our modern understanding of ‘religion’ is a fairly recent invention, only solidifying in the 19th century, and squarely rests on an interpretation of Christianity being the most 'pure'.
She starts by describing the divination of John Nicholson, a Brit in the colonial service who was canonised by Baden Powell and deified by his local subordinates, while later analyses absolved the colonial context of his behaviour as the source of at least some of his abuse.
A piece on Indian women throwing themselves in the fire of their deceased husbands, and another on theosophy, the late 19th century notion, springing from Madame Blavatsky, stating that all religions are one. It turns out that Ghandi started his journey towards self rule, being reintroduced to his own religion via the theosophists.
The theosophical movement ended with a bit of a bang; the boy that was identified as the future vessel of God on earth, Krishnamurti, after some 20 years of grooming, actually appeared to receive God inside of him and then claimed that he is in everyone and everyone can have the same experience, then disbanding the movement around him in 1929, in Ommen, in the Netherlands, of all places.
The section on India ends with a gorgeous story of an Indian revering Trump as a god. He started fasting when Trump was diagnosed with COVID, and then died on the day Trump announced having beaten the infection.
The final section of the book, perhaps a tad convoluted, is on how the myth of white divinity was established in the Americas, first through the recognition of European explorers as gods at the discovery of the Americas, eventually flowing into notions of white supremacy in the US.
In passing, Subin states that the 60 million inhabitants that died after this conquest, and the resulting resurgence of forests were once they lived, caused the global cooling of the mini ice age in the late Middle Ages.
This section ends with more recent scholars questioning the nature of the Christian divinity. Is God a white supremacist? They essentially conclude that God either doesn’t exist, is an asshole, or is powerless.
Read
September 9, 2022This book was an educational journey through history, specifically the manner in which colonising forces were sometimes apotheosised by the people they colonised, either by misunderstanding or by deliberate, false linguistic interpretation (in the case of the Spanish Missionaries). I found the survey of British India of particular interest due to a personal interest in 19th century politics – Colonel Nicholson (the administrator who crowds of Hindus sat and watched at his desk while he worked – in awe of him – and who wasn’t averse to whipping his adherents when their worship and ardour grew too much for him) was an interesting study. I found the description of him as a particularly violent person – prone to outbursts of anger - and the possible reason given perhaps more fascinating, due to its Freudian, psychoanalytic nature – a possible explanation of repressed homosexuality.
The retelling of the ascent of personages such as Gandhi and philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti was well researched, although, in the author’s endeavour to paint the subcontinent’s strive for independence Gandhi’s letters to Hitler entreating non-violence might have been overlooked in the face of descriptions of photographs of Hitler being placed along Shiva and Vishnu on Hindu altars and being prayed to as a hope of Indian liberation from British oppression, as there is no mention of Gandhi’s letters to the Fuhrer in the text. Hitler’s racist policies were addressed in the text, as yet another paradox in the narration of Indian Independence.
I found the description of the custody battle between Mrs Besant and the Krishnamurti brothers in 1913 well researched, and the eventual decision of the judge to award custody of the brothers to her and an alleged child molester on the grounds that the original verdict had not considered “the boys’ own wishes (250)” was a miscarriage of justice – I wonder whether the boys’ own wishes were to return to a known paedophile? – since the boys were never consulted, we will never know. Having recently re-read E M Forster’s A Passage to India recently, I was pleased to see Forster’s examination of Hinduism through the eyes of both parties, particularly the retelling of the story of Krisha opening his mouth and having the whole universe inside, which is fascinating – even if one is not a particularly religious person.
Upon having read the deification of US General MacArthur, I can see how the man became etched in memory, having been worshipped as a god on both sides of the globe – Panama, Japan, and, later, South Korea. The sociological implications between MacArthur and the system he tried to replace by the institution of US democracy in Japan – having taken down an idol in the emperor Hirohito, by advising him to renounce his godhood status, and subsequently having his own picture hung up in classrooms and on personal altars for veneration was an irony not lost upon Subin.
I highly recommended this.
The retelling of the ascent of personages such as Gandhi and philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti was well researched, although, in the author’s endeavour to paint the subcontinent’s strive for independence Gandhi’s letters to Hitler entreating non-violence might have been overlooked in the face of descriptions of photographs of Hitler being placed along Shiva and Vishnu on Hindu altars and being prayed to as a hope of Indian liberation from British oppression, as there is no mention of Gandhi’s letters to the Fuhrer in the text. Hitler’s racist policies were addressed in the text, as yet another paradox in the narration of Indian Independence.
I found the description of the custody battle between Mrs Besant and the Krishnamurti brothers in 1913 well researched, and the eventual decision of the judge to award custody of the brothers to her and an alleged child molester on the grounds that the original verdict had not considered “the boys’ own wishes (250)” was a miscarriage of justice – I wonder whether the boys’ own wishes were to return to a known paedophile? – since the boys were never consulted, we will never know. Having recently re-read E M Forster’s A Passage to India recently, I was pleased to see Forster’s examination of Hinduism through the eyes of both parties, particularly the retelling of the story of Krisha opening his mouth and having the whole universe inside, which is fascinating – even if one is not a particularly religious person.
Upon having read the deification of US General MacArthur, I can see how the man became etched in memory, having been worshipped as a god on both sides of the globe – Panama, Japan, and, later, South Korea. The sociological implications between MacArthur and the system he tried to replace by the institution of US democracy in Japan – having taken down an idol in the emperor Hirohito, by advising him to renounce his godhood status, and subsequently having his own picture hung up in classrooms and on personal altars for veneration was an irony not lost upon Subin.
I highly recommended this.
January 17, 2022
Who wouldn't want to be a god? A few people have succeeded in history. Although maybe not intentionally. This is discussed in the publication Accidental Gods by the writer Anna della Subin. The book entered the New York Times Editor's Choice.
During Roman times, it was common to elevate emperors to gods. Until Christianity was elevated to something unattainable by humankind. The problem is how to determine who or what God is. Whether it is based on some general awareness or the nature of the person. The first part of the book deals with this theory. One way to become a god is to be possessed. But whether a person will have enough free will to enjoy it, I will leave it to the imagination 😊
The following are the individual stories of more or less famous figures in history who have reached the apothesis, that is, the transformation into some divine being, at least from the point of view of their followers.
The first deified person of the modern era was the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. He is even named Rastafarian and his followers were strong fanatics. Fame was, however, stronger than state ability, and yet he ruled until his death. For one tribe on Vanatu, the British Prince Philip is also a god, or for some time the American General Douglas McArthur was also a god. One of the conditions of the peace treaty with Japan after World War II was that the Japanese emperor had to give up his own "divinity" and General McArthur became his successor in the eyes of many Japanese.
The classics are Spanish conquistadori or the worship of the image of the English queen on an Indian rupee coin. Mahatma Gandhi also became a god during his life. However, he did not like it at all, because he was harassed by worshipers at every turn.
During the colonization, the phenomenon of so-called cargookers, when the natives began to consider the captains of ships, pilots who brought food or supplies to remote areas. But not only gods but also demons. Captain James Cook treated his "followers" in the Hawaiian Islands so badly that they preferred to execute him. The book is strongly dominated by racism. In most cases, the white man, who technologically dominated over darker-skinned people, was declared the god.
As I read how a devotional and an ordinary English soldier in India, through superstitions and word-of-mouth distortions, I wonder if not all the world's religions have started.
Although there were many interesting philosophies, theologies, and histories in the book, many passages described the overly detailed lives of various small supporting characters, and were quite lengthy and boring. It's not a book entirely for experiential reading, but it looks more like a rigorous job.
During Roman times, it was common to elevate emperors to gods. Until Christianity was elevated to something unattainable by humankind. The problem is how to determine who or what God is. Whether it is based on some general awareness or the nature of the person. The first part of the book deals with this theory. One way to become a god is to be possessed. But whether a person will have enough free will to enjoy it, I will leave it to the imagination 😊
The following are the individual stories of more or less famous figures in history who have reached the apothesis, that is, the transformation into some divine being, at least from the point of view of their followers.
The first deified person of the modern era was the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. He is even named Rastafarian and his followers were strong fanatics. Fame was, however, stronger than state ability, and yet he ruled until his death. For one tribe on Vanatu, the British Prince Philip is also a god, or for some time the American General Douglas McArthur was also a god. One of the conditions of the peace treaty with Japan after World War II was that the Japanese emperor had to give up his own "divinity" and General McArthur became his successor in the eyes of many Japanese.
The classics are Spanish conquistadori or the worship of the image of the English queen on an Indian rupee coin. Mahatma Gandhi also became a god during his life. However, he did not like it at all, because he was harassed by worshipers at every turn.
During the colonization, the phenomenon of so-called cargookers, when the natives began to consider the captains of ships, pilots who brought food or supplies to remote areas. But not only gods but also demons. Captain James Cook treated his "followers" in the Hawaiian Islands so badly that they preferred to execute him. The book is strongly dominated by racism. In most cases, the white man, who technologically dominated over darker-skinned people, was declared the god.
As I read how a devotional and an ordinary English soldier in India, through superstitions and word-of-mouth distortions, I wonder if not all the world's religions have started.
Although there were many interesting philosophies, theologies, and histories in the book, many passages described the overly detailed lives of various small supporting characters, and were quite lengthy and boring. It's not a book entirely for experiential reading, but it looks more like a rigorous job.
December 31, 2023
Subin does a far-ranging investigation of an odd religious problem: many people have been deified. It happened to Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, General Doulas MacArthur, Christopher Columbus, Julius Caesar, Hernando Cortez. Gandhi was widely deified regardless of how hard he protested against it. A lot of these deified men were white, and happened to be crusaders for supposedly godly empires. It gets confusing who was deifying who, or who was just reacting to enemy gods with the volcanic power of spirit possession.
All this opens a highly eclectic search through the global history of popular religion, rummaging for perspectives on the nature of spiritual quests, saints, saviors, avatars, etc. Colonial Englishmen such as William Crooke cast critical eyes upon India: “Hinduism lies in urgent need of a Pope. … there is no official controller of the right to deification.” The long-buried gnostic Gospel of Philip announces, “In the beginning, God created humankind. But now humankind creates God. This is the way of the world—human beings invent gods and worship their creation. It would be more fitting for the gods to worship men!” A man named Baylis on Tanu Island in the Pacific is reportedly “not quite a god,” or he is “more what they call a ‘tabu man,’ someone so sacred and dangerous that they occupy a place somewhere between the living and the dead.” The ancient bishop Clement of Alexandria holds that divinity “pervades all mankind equally.” Those who follow Christ’s teachings “will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the teacher—made a god going about in the flesh.” Of course many people maintain that divinity is inherited. As a participant in the white nationalist online forum Stormfront (named Aryan7314) explains, “God is in our Aryan DNA … So we must do everything to be eternal.” Subin claims that almost all deified people are men, but her dataset omits a lot of goddesses.
All this free-flowing discussion is fascinating, but how can Subin conclude it? In the end, she turns to a fairly safe focus, pointing out the hypocrisy of religion as a quest for superiority: “How can one seek supremacy through a faith that teaches the universal brotherhood of man?” It’s a good question, but she has raised far more questions than that.
All this opens a highly eclectic search through the global history of popular religion, rummaging for perspectives on the nature of spiritual quests, saints, saviors, avatars, etc. Colonial Englishmen such as William Crooke cast critical eyes upon India: “Hinduism lies in urgent need of a Pope. … there is no official controller of the right to deification.” The long-buried gnostic Gospel of Philip announces, “In the beginning, God created humankind. But now humankind creates God. This is the way of the world—human beings invent gods and worship their creation. It would be more fitting for the gods to worship men!” A man named Baylis on Tanu Island in the Pacific is reportedly “not quite a god,” or he is “more what they call a ‘tabu man,’ someone so sacred and dangerous that they occupy a place somewhere between the living and the dead.” The ancient bishop Clement of Alexandria holds that divinity “pervades all mankind equally.” Those who follow Christ’s teachings “will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the teacher—made a god going about in the flesh.” Of course many people maintain that divinity is inherited. As a participant in the white nationalist online forum Stormfront (named Aryan7314) explains, “God is in our Aryan DNA … So we must do everything to be eternal.” Subin claims that almost all deified people are men, but her dataset omits a lot of goddesses.
All this free-flowing discussion is fascinating, but how can Subin conclude it? In the end, she turns to a fairly safe focus, pointing out the hypocrisy of religion as a quest for superiority: “How can one seek supremacy through a faith that teaches the universal brotherhood of man?” It’s a good question, but she has raised far more questions than that.
August 8, 2023
First of all, it really bothers me that Goodreads doesn't have the blue cover for this book on their editions list 😭😭 now my colour system is going to be all messed up in my “read” shelf 😭😭
Anyway....
This is a very interesting book with some absolutely wild stories in it. Most of the stories hinge on the effects of colonisation and colonialism though – which I suppose shouldn't be a surprise, but it did make a few of the sections seem repetitive though. Some cases were explored in much more detail than others, which gave the book a feeling of poor pacing in spite of it not being a novel. Some sections were a slog full of detailed tangents, others were gripping and dramatic retellings of bizarre situations. Incidentally, it felt like the author perhaps was going for a more storylike “narrative” style of writing. This was bolstered by the fact that there are no in-page references. I found this really annoying as sometimes it was unclear where a quote began or ended, or who exactly was saying what. I'd got most of the way through the book before realising the references at the end were done by page number – but even so, that doesn't actually define the quote in a certain manner, and I found this quite sloppy. Considering that I'd picked this book up not only out of pure interest, but as a form of research for story ideas, it could have framed itself and its sources in a more useful manner.
I had the same issue with the images. The author has been kind enough to include images within the work, but they have no captions, and are often linked to text a few pages prior to the image so it can be difficult to work out what the image is referring to. I think there were also references in the back, but it actually disrupted the narrative more in my opinion to have left out explanatory captions, than to have had them present. It was trying so hard to be a story book it forgot we actually needed explanations of what was going on in the pictures for it to flow.
Still undeniably interesting though.
3*
Anyway....
This is a very interesting book with some absolutely wild stories in it. Most of the stories hinge on the effects of colonisation and colonialism though – which I suppose shouldn't be a surprise, but it did make a few of the sections seem repetitive though. Some cases were explored in much more detail than others, which gave the book a feeling of poor pacing in spite of it not being a novel. Some sections were a slog full of detailed tangents, others were gripping and dramatic retellings of bizarre situations. Incidentally, it felt like the author perhaps was going for a more storylike “narrative” style of writing. This was bolstered by the fact that there are no in-page references. I found this really annoying as sometimes it was unclear where a quote began or ended, or who exactly was saying what. I'd got most of the way through the book before realising the references at the end were done by page number – but even so, that doesn't actually define the quote in a certain manner, and I found this quite sloppy. Considering that I'd picked this book up not only out of pure interest, but as a form of research for story ideas, it could have framed itself and its sources in a more useful manner.
I had the same issue with the images. The author has been kind enough to include images within the work, but they have no captions, and are often linked to text a few pages prior to the image so it can be difficult to work out what the image is referring to. I think there were also references in the back, but it actually disrupted the narrative more in my opinion to have left out explanatory captions, than to have had them present. It was trying so hard to be a story book it forgot we actually needed explanations of what was going on in the pictures for it to flow.
Still undeniably interesting though.
3*
January 31, 2022
In "Accidental Gods," Anna Della Subin offers expansive narratives of apotheosis – the practice of worshiping men as living gods – and connects them to the creation of the modern world. Drawing on records of deification in territories colonized by Spain, Britain, and America, Subin illustrates how Europeans developed the modern concept of racial hierarchy from ideas of divinity to justify colonization and subjugation. Perhaps not ironically, god-making became necessary to forge nationalist and liberatory movements in post-colonial contexts. Diasporic communities look to gods in their own images to dismantle colonial constructs and fuel nationalist struggles.
The author assumes no prior knowledge, taking care to tell compelling stories in a concise and factual way. The book is elegantly written, flaunting the author’s mastery of theology to problematize the racist roots of present-day Christianity. Subin’s analysis exposes deep-seated biases of the time, noting ethnocentric assumptions about the intentions of native peoples, hopelessly lost in translation of both language and cultural mores.
In my lifelong journey of decolonization, I am grateful for this book. It reinforced the emancipatory power of the decolonial imagination to both create and destroy. Subin connects the spread of Christianity among indigenous populations to white supremacy and racism. For me, the most powerful testimonies are grounded in resistance and dissidence: how colonized peoples used apotheosis to their own advantage by reclaiming divinity.
This review was originally published in Manhattan Book Review.
The author assumes no prior knowledge, taking care to tell compelling stories in a concise and factual way. The book is elegantly written, flaunting the author’s mastery of theology to problematize the racist roots of present-day Christianity. Subin’s analysis exposes deep-seated biases of the time, noting ethnocentric assumptions about the intentions of native peoples, hopelessly lost in translation of both language and cultural mores.
In my lifelong journey of decolonization, I am grateful for this book. It reinforced the emancipatory power of the decolonial imagination to both create and destroy. Subin connects the spread of Christianity among indigenous populations to white supremacy and racism. For me, the most powerful testimonies are grounded in resistance and dissidence: how colonized peoples used apotheosis to their own advantage by reclaiming divinity.
This review was originally published in Manhattan Book Review.
Read
July 8, 2023This book has mind-blowingly fascinating and awful stories. It is a collage of detailed histories of the unasked-for deification of humans in recent history, with a particular interest in deifications related to a clash of cultures, colonialism, war, and politics.
There is barely a narrator here. No conclusions are reached, no explanations given. The narration veers unpredictably in perspective. For instance, in the midst of a standard historical recounting, a sentence like this appears: “In early 1921, in the sky above the village of Chauri Chaura, in the region of Gorakhpur, a gigantic serpent slithered upward and coiled itself into a celestial ring, or a noose.” I felt like the author was toying with us and casting a weird mood, that for me, heightened the sense of horror I felt at the absolutely bonkers things humans will do.
That was my main takeaway (though it seemed like the takeaway was supposed to be hatred of colonialism, perhaps?): that people’s imagination and credulity are pretty much unlimited, and I am thankful for skepticism and scientific method.
I have heard Christian apologists claim that Bible stories are supported by the willingness of early adherents to die rather than recant their eyewitness testimony. Even if that claim were better historically supported, the stories in this book should give anyone pause who thinks full blown religions with fanatics are hard to produce out of thin air. The hard part, apparently, is getting the faithful to cool it, even when their expectations are spectacularly unmet and the god himself begs them to stop already.
There is barely a narrator here. No conclusions are reached, no explanations given. The narration veers unpredictably in perspective. For instance, in the midst of a standard historical recounting, a sentence like this appears: “In early 1921, in the sky above the village of Chauri Chaura, in the region of Gorakhpur, a gigantic serpent slithered upward and coiled itself into a celestial ring, or a noose.” I felt like the author was toying with us and casting a weird mood, that for me, heightened the sense of horror I felt at the absolutely bonkers things humans will do.
That was my main takeaway (though it seemed like the takeaway was supposed to be hatred of colonialism, perhaps?): that people’s imagination and credulity are pretty much unlimited, and I am thankful for skepticism and scientific method.
I have heard Christian apologists claim that Bible stories are supported by the willingness of early adherents to die rather than recant their eyewitness testimony. Even if that claim were better historically supported, the stories in this book should give anyone pause who thinks full blown religions with fanatics are hard to produce out of thin air. The hard part, apparently, is getting the faithful to cool it, even when their expectations are spectacularly unmet and the god himself begs them to stop already.
October 15, 2022
Accidental divinity seems to have happened more frequently than one might expect. The mechanisms are very different, ranging from deliberately playing into people's expectations (in the case of Cortés and the Spanish conquest of South America), to possession by spirits in Nigeria and India, to the entirely accidental raising of Britain's Prince Philip to godhead.
In Prince Philip's case the claims are taken very seriously. When his new worshippers want a photograph of him, it initiates a flurry of activity to consult with anthropologists and archaeologists to determine the right way to carry the ceremonial pig-killing stick he is to appear with. There seem to be a mixture of motivations: a sincere desire not to offend, but also an unmistakable impulse to gain a subtle lever of control over a far-away imperial possession. Having a god on your side, as the Roman emperors knew, never hurts.
One perhaps has to feel sorriest for Haile Selassie, the very Christian emperor or Ethiopia who had to run for his life ahead of Mussolini's invasion and spent an exile in England campaigning for is country's liberty. After all this genuine accomplishment, he accidentally becomes a god to people he didn't know or understand as part of Rastafarianism (before becoming emperor he was known as Prince – or Ras – Tafari), which itself emerges from a Jamaican nationalism needing an origin myth. It shows how a need for religion remains entwined into the modern world's most modern impulses towards self-determination and independence.
In Prince Philip's case the claims are taken very seriously. When his new worshippers want a photograph of him, it initiates a flurry of activity to consult with anthropologists and archaeologists to determine the right way to carry the ceremonial pig-killing stick he is to appear with. There seem to be a mixture of motivations: a sincere desire not to offend, but also an unmistakable impulse to gain a subtle lever of control over a far-away imperial possession. Having a god on your side, as the Roman emperors knew, never hurts.
One perhaps has to feel sorriest for Haile Selassie, the very Christian emperor or Ethiopia who had to run for his life ahead of Mussolini's invasion and spent an exile in England campaigning for is country's liberty. After all this genuine accomplishment, he accidentally becomes a god to people he didn't know or understand as part of Rastafarianism (before becoming emperor he was known as Prince – or Ras – Tafari), which itself emerges from a Jamaican nationalism needing an origin myth. It shows how a need for religion remains entwined into the modern world's most modern impulses towards self-determination and independence.
September 19, 2022
I am still reading this one. Since the book is one that allows me to dip into any part of it and read at random, I am taking my time to read about these “accidental gods.” Don’t get me wrong, it is not because the book is not un-put-downable; it actually is, but it also is one that needs to be read a bit at a time, at least for me.
There is so much information, so many people turned into gods from around the world and over the ages, that it is mind-boggling. Subin’s mastery of the subject matter is clear throughout, and I appreciated that nowhere does she assume prior knowledge in the reader. She relates every story with enough detail, humor, information, and most-admirably-objectively, to make it appealing to both the layman to this topic and those who pick this book because they are interested in theology or study of such social and human behaviors.
While definitely not a light read, this is a brilliant, original, well-researched, and fascinating one. Get it for yourself or anyone who you think might love it
Disclaimer: Thanks for the e-RC from NetGalley. These are my honest thoughts about the book.
.
There is so much information, so many people turned into gods from around the world and over the ages, that it is mind-boggling. Subin’s mastery of the subject matter is clear throughout, and I appreciated that nowhere does she assume prior knowledge in the reader. She relates every story with enough detail, humor, information, and most-admirably-objectively, to make it appealing to both the layman to this topic and those who pick this book because they are interested in theology or study of such social and human behaviors.
While definitely not a light read, this is a brilliant, original, well-researched, and fascinating one. Get it for yourself or anyone who you think might love it
Disclaimer: Thanks for the e-RC from NetGalley. These are my honest thoughts about the book.
.
November 1, 2023
"Subin studied the history of religion and, with this book, she has brought off a writerly coup, identifying a truly original topic, at first glance bizarre and even ridiculous, but which turns out to be thoroughly worth the assiduous research and intense thought she has given it. The vivid stories she unfolds deftly braid theology, philosophy, anthropology, and colonial theory; they also reflect her engagement with mythology and works of imagination, and even connect to her interest in sleep and dreams, as divinity was visited on her subjects all unconsciously: you could say they were dreamed into divine status like the magician in Borges’s story “The Circular Ruins,” who fashions a man by dreaming him into existence and then discovers at the end that he himself is being dreamed." -Marina Warner
Read the full review here: https://books.substack.com/p/review-m...
Read the full review here: https://books.substack.com/p/review-m...
July 1, 2021
Accidental Gods discusses a variety of men and women - though mostly men - who unwillingly or unintentionally underwent deification, from Haile Selassie of Rastafarianism to a multitude of colonial demigods.
The author uses a wide variety of sources and writes in lovely evocative language to relate information. She relates apotheosis to oppression and colonialism, showing clearly the origins of the homemade religions and their causes and aftereffects. She does a good job at distilling complex ideas to understandable parts without simplifying them. She writes about often outlanish ideas without exoticizing them, which I applaud her for.
The subject is a fascinating one, and I greatly enjoyed my read, even if I did feel that some parts of latter chapters got repetitive on occasion.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
The author uses a wide variety of sources and writes in lovely evocative language to relate information. She relates apotheosis to oppression and colonialism, showing clearly the origins of the homemade religions and their causes and aftereffects. She does a good job at distilling complex ideas to understandable parts without simplifying them. She writes about often outlanish ideas without exoticizing them, which I applaud her for.
The subject is a fascinating one, and I greatly enjoyed my read, even if I did feel that some parts of latter chapters got repetitive on occasion.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Read
August 12, 2022I loved the premise of this title, a study of how men become deified. It is a topic that has long intrigued me, ever since reading about cargo cults in college and staying with me through my academic studies of religious movements. However, I struggled to get into this. The writing felt disjointed at times which I felt was only exacerbated by the organization of the book. I do see a potential for this to be used in more academic settings, as the chapters themselves could stand alone as essays, and would pair well with other texts that go into more of the theory around why these cults of personality spring up and have such lasting power. An intriguing premise, but ultimately one that just fell flat for me.
August 10, 2022
A very interesting case study of how humanity tries to conquer social, religious, and government upheaval by worshipping an avatar to represent it. Though some of these humans turned gods were crafted intentionally, others simply stumbled into and combined with existing myths and dreams. While some of the explanations/descriptions of the cultures adopting them got a bit repetitive, overall the breadth of different religions and their figure heads was engaging.
Spoiler: standout/my favorite examples were definitely Gandhi and Haile Selassie.
Spoiler: standout/my favorite examples were definitely Gandhi and Haile Selassie.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2023
4 stars
The beginning starts out with funny stories of men who have unwittingly become gods or demigods for people around the world. It devolves into a complex discussion on how religion, colonialism, current structural racism, and (primarily) India/Nazi beliefs all intertwined in the 1900-2000. It is a solid read, but the ideas in the first part are different than the ideas in the second part, which was jolting. I thought this was an awesome book and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys pondering what it means to be human and what part religion and ideologues play in our meaning.
The beginning starts out with funny stories of men who have unwittingly become gods or demigods for people around the world. It devolves into a complex discussion on how religion, colonialism, current structural racism, and (primarily) India/Nazi beliefs all intertwined in the 1900-2000. It is a solid read, but the ideas in the first part are different than the ideas in the second part, which was jolting. I thought this was an awesome book and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys pondering what it means to be human and what part religion and ideologues play in our meaning.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 17, 2023
Auraist chose this as the best-written book on the shortlist for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for historical writing. Read a passage from Accidental Gods at https://auraist.substack.com/p/histor...
Auraist selects the most stylishly books from prize shortlists and major reviews, and interviews the prose experts who wrote them. Criteria for our picks are at https://auraist.substack.com/p/welcom...
If we've missed any especially well-written publications, please email us at auraist@substack.com, quoting the first 300 words of your recommended book.
Auraist selects the most stylishly books from prize shortlists and major reviews, and interviews the prose experts who wrote them. Criteria for our picks are at https://auraist.substack.com/p/welcom...
If we've missed any especially well-written publications, please email us at auraist@substack.com, quoting the first 300 words of your recommended book.
March 31, 2022
I got half way through this book before I gave up. Given the subject matter, it should have been more interesting. I just found I didn't care. The book I recently read about statues that had been torn down should have been less interesting, but I really liked the style of that author. Not the case for this book.
April 5, 2022
DNF. I enjoyed the first section about cargo cults, but it veered strangely into the author's personal account of a friend and accidental god, then launched into a treatise of English colonialism in India. It became less about the individual men, and there I lost interest. It could have probably been published as three smaller books each with different purposes.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews