There are at least three good reasons to read Peter Manseau’s latest book, Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World’s Holy Dead.  The most quickly apparent reason is the way Manseau writes.  Disguised as a travelogue, Rag and Bone is actually a history of the role relics play in the world’s religions.  Of the few remains of Joan of Arc Manseau writes,

The bits and pieces that may have once belonged to the Maid of Orleans, the most popular saint the church ever killed, have been placed inside three glass jars, slid into cloth cozies, and arranged within a pale wooden case the size of a toolbox…  First on the the RER commuter train, then the metro, she rides up out of the darkness like a body exhumed, despite the unfortunate fact that she never had a grave to begin with.

Manseau strikes the delicate balance of humor and awe through the book’s eight chapters.  While not overlooking the odd moments that are bound to take place while traveling the world to view pieces of dead people, the author is careful to treat the relics and those who venerate them with deference and admiration.

The stories that emerge when the reporter’s search intersects with those who see something transcendent in old bones and bits of skin is the second reason Rag and Bone is so enjoyable.  The best travelogues entertain even while showing the reader fascinating scenes and unknown histories; both are abundant in these pages.  Manseau mixes his own adventures of traveling to places like Jerusalem and Syria with the stories of the once living saints whose bodies- or what’s left of them- continue to influence the faithful.

There’s another reason I so thoroughly enjoyed this book, though I’m not sure the author intended this reaction.  Rag and Bone repeatedly shows the human desire for a physical connection with the spiritual world.  Officially, many of the world’s religions are rather ambivalent- or outright hostile- towards relics and the veneration that often follows.  This hasn’t stopped believers all around the world from making pilgrimages to see bits of bone, tooth, hair and (yes, it’s true) foreskin.  While modern religion is often portrayed in otherworldly terms, Manseau compellingly portrays the human need for a tangible connection with the divine.

In the midst of it’s adventure, history, and humor there is plenty to ponder in Rag and Bone for those who share my Christian belief.  Historic Christianity affirms the physical-ness of creation and humanity and looks to a final restoration of all things that is not less but more physical than what we now experience.  Unfortunately Christianity has often moved in more gnostic directions where the body and the world is seen as a temporary existence from which we will one day escape.  Within this dualistic worldview it makes sense that believers would grasp at relics as material connections to the out-of-reach spiritual world.  A more traditional understanding of Christianity looks not to jars of bones for this connection but to people (the image-bearers of God) and the creation (a reflection of the character and creativity of God).  The Christian is directed to God by the living creations of God.  We are encouraged to worship as we encounter the beautiful and complex results of God’s creative work.

Whether or not a reader finds this type of insight in its pages, Rag and Bone is an enjoyable read- as entertaining as it is informative.