Buxton Books is proud to be the bookseller for The Charleston Library Society as they welcome Kyle Smith to discuss his book Cult of the Dead, which dives into the origins of Christianity and its history of memoralizing the legacies of martyrs. A program and book for lovers of history and theology, Smith’s sweeping historical account adopts a fascinating approach to the evolution of religion and the phenomena of death and martyrdom.
Ticket prices are as follows:
Tickets are $10 for members, $15 for the public.
To purchase tickets, click here or call 843-723-9912 during box office hours.
About Cult of the Dead:
A cultural history of how Christianity was born from its martyrs.
Though it promises eternal life, Christianity was forged in death. Christianity is built upon the legacies of the apostles and martyrs who chose to die rather than renounce the name of their lord. In this innovative cultural history, Kyle Smith shows how a devotion to death has shaped Christianity for two thousand years.
For centuries, Christians have cared for their saints, curating their deaths as examples of holiness. Martyrs’ stories, lurid legends of torture, have been told and retold, translated and rewritten. Martyrs’ bones are alive in the world, relics pulsing with wonder. Martyrs’ shrines are still visited by pilgrims, many in search of a miracle. Martyrs have even shaped the Christian conception of time, with each day of the year celebrating the death of a saint. From Roman antiquity to the present, by way of medieval England and the Protestant Reformation, Cult of the Dead tells the fascinating story of how the world’s most widespread religion is steeped in the memory of its martyrs.