Firewalking and Religious Healing: The Anastenaria of Greece and the American Firewalking Movement

by Loring M. Danforth

Book Overview

"If the Saint calls you, if you have an open road, then you don't feel the fire as if it were your enemy," says one of the participants in the Anastenaria. This compelling work evokes and contrasts two forms of firewalking and religious healing: first, the Anastenaria, a northern Greek ritual in which people who are possessed by Saint Constantine dance dramatically over red-hot coals, and, second, American firewalking, one of the more spectacular...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691028532
• ISBN13: 9780691028538
• Release Date: November 1989
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

interesting study of cross-cultural religious practice

I was sorry to see only one, rather negative, review for this book. I have used it in college classes for several years, and most students enjoy reading it. It is a good example of how studying the same activity (firewalking) in two different contexts (Greece and the U.S.) can shed light on the practice in both cultures. The author is respectful about both Greek Christian and American New Age firewalkers, and reveals how the ritual is transformative for both groups... but, as you might expect, in very different ways! It will also tell you something about how rituals heal, and about medical anthropology.