"Gore Vidal’s 1954 dystopian satire Messiah is the story of a religious movement that forms around a charismatic undertaker named John Cave. Cave’s central message is, simply and profoundly, that people should not be afraid of death; not because they could look forward to an afterlife of eternal bliss in paradise, but rather because oblivion means an end to all human suffering. His magnetic personality and vision of a world freed from thanatophobia quickly attract devoted followers, and so the odyssey begins.

Cave’s story is narrated by Eugene Luther, an intellectual and writer who is drafted into the nascent Cavite movement by a mysterious older woman named Clarissa, who affects to be over two thousand years old, and a brilliant younger woman named Iris, with whom Luther falls (literally) hopelessly in love. Luther is tasked with refining and elaborating John Cave’s philosophy – which quickly becomes known as “Cavesword” – into a plausible, organized doctrine. Backed up by the Madison Avenue promotions and psychoanalytic acumen of others in their small (but extremely well-financed) cohort, the Cavites succeed beyond Luther’s wildest (and most troubling) dreams."

— More and with spoilers: http://alt-death.com/2021/06/10/cavesword-a-nontheistic-religion-of-radical-death-acceptance-in-gore-vidals-messiah/