The 1980s are usually seen as a slick, shrill decade. The Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers urged 'Death to America'; Ronald Reagan was in the White House, backed by the Moral Majority; John Paul II was asserting Catholic traditionalism and denouncing homosexuality, as were the televangelists on cable TV. And yet 'crypto-religious' artists pushed back against the spirit of the age, venturing into vexed areas where politicians and clergy were loath to go - and anticipating the postsecular age we are living in today. That is the story Paul Elie tells in this enthralling group portrait. Here's Leonard Cohen writing 'Hallelujah' in a Times Square hotel room; Andy Warhol adapting Leonardo's The Last Supper in response to the AIDS crisis; Prince making the cross and altar into 'signs of the times.' Through Toni Morrison the spirits of the enslaved speak from the grave; Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen deepen the tent-revival intensity of their work; U2, Morrissey, and Sinéad O'Connor
