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Religion's great and powerful mystery fascinates us, but it also terrifies. So too the monsters that haunt the stories of Jewish and Christian scriptures and earlier traditions: Leviathan, Behemoth, dragons, and other beasts. In this unusual and provocative book, Timothy K. Beal writes about the monsters that lurk in our religious texts, and reveals how monsters and religion are irrevocably entwined. Most of us do not go to monster movies or read Gothic tales in search of religion, at least not consciously. Nor do we go to religious services in search of monsters. Yet, horror and faith, it seems, are inextricable. According to Beal, we can learn something about religion by getting to know its monsters, and we can learn something about monsters by investigating their religious roots. As Timothy Beal follows monsters throughout religious texts and traditions, he also discovers religion lurking in the modern horror genre, from classics likeFrankensteinandDraculato thecontemporary spookiness of H.P. Lovecraft's short stories and theHellraiserfilms. Drawing upon a broad range of ancient texts and popular culture, from rabbinic lore to Goth counterculture, he explores the fascinating and often disturbing ways in which monsters haunt religion and religion haunts the monstrous. Learned and witty,Religion and Its Monstersis a captivating look at how we imagine good and evil--and what lies beyond.
"Imaginatively written, entertaining, and well researched, this work of creative scholarship is a fascinating read.." -"CHOICE, R.L. Massanari, Alma College ..."well researched. Recommended for religion and popular culture collections.." -"Library Journal, December 2001 ..."this is a fine, readable and often intriguing book." -"The Plain Dealer "This brilliant, twisted, imaginative book explores religion's dark side, from the predictable monsters of sacred texts to more startling choices from popular culture....When Beal concludes the book by explaining that 'our monsters are ourselves, ' it comes not as a cultural indictment from a self-satisfied pundit but an astute observation by a witty and wise fellow traveler." -Publishers Weekly "This is scholarship in cultural analysis at its best: well-documented, thought-provoking, and funny. Its crisp writing almost fools you into thinking it's simple. But it does what it says: it raises profound questions that survive their answers. Critical of the devastating prejudices that underlie the religious imagination, it stops short of moralizing. A bravura piece of what binds the cultural disciplines together." - Mieke Bal, author of "Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Genesis 1, Take Two | |
| Religion and Its Monsters, Monsters and Their Religion | |
| Paradox of the Monstrous | |
| Demonizing and Deifying | |
| Monstrum Tremendum, Mysterium Tremendum | |
| Religion and Its Monsters | |
| Chaos Gods | p. 13 |
| Fragments from the Ancient Near East | |
| To Order and Back | |
| Chaos Mother | |
| The Cloudrider and the Warrior Goddess | |
| No Rest | |
| The Bible and Horror | p. 23 |
| Biblical Monsters and Mad Professors | |
| Water Play or Water Fight | |
| Disorientation and Theological Horror | |
| Monstrous Enemies | |
| Conjuring | |
| The Sleep of Wisdom | p. 35 |
| Job and the Abyss of Suffering | |
| Absence of All Refuge | |
| Desiring Chaos | |
| Lyricism of Terror | |
| From the Whirlwind | p. 47 |
| Rousing God Rousing Leviathan | |
| Diapered Monster | |
| Behold Behemoth | |
| Drawing Out Leviathan | |
| Wholly Other | |
| Divine Abyss | |
| Dinner and a Show | p. 57 |
| Watching and Eating Monsters in Rabbinic Tradition | |
| Seafaring Tales of the Rabbis | |
| Fresh, Frozen or Salt-cured | |
| Is This Monster Kosher? | |
| Jonah's Undersea Adventure | |
| To the Devil | p. 71 |
| Apocalypse | |
| It's the Edge of the World as We Know It | |
| Diabolical Dragon | |
| The Monster-maker's Bible's Bible | |
| From Beowulf to Dracula to Harry Potter | |
| Monsters and Their Religion | |
| New Monsters in Old Skins | p. 89 |
| Modern Chaos Battles | |
| Hobbes' Mortall God | |
| Theophany | |
| But Why Leviathan? | |
| Awe and Order | |
| Hellraiser | |
| Other Gods | p. 103 |
| Orientalism and Its Monsters | |
| The Witch's Monkeys | |
| Rama's Monkeys | |
| Horrid Chambers of Imagery | |
| Diabolical Monsters | |
| Sublime Monsters | |
| Disoriental Monsters | |
| The Blood Is the Life | p. 123 |
| Ritual Purity and Danger in Dracula | |
| The Count's Religion | |
| Laws Pertaining to Blood | |
| Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood | |
| Rituals of Resacralization | |
| Transfusion | |
| One Wedding and a Funeral | |
| Last Battle | |
| Screening Monsters | p. 141 |
| Movie Time, Sacred Time | |
| Monstrous Revelations (Nosferatu and Shadow of the Vampire) | |
| Stage Rite (Dracula) | |
| Exorcism (Metropolis) | |
| Ecomonster | p. 159 |
| I Am Become Death | |
| Ecohorror on Screen | |
| Demythologizing the Monster | |
| Shooting the Monster | |
| These Are Ourselves | |
| Our Monsters, Ourselves | p. 173 |
| Island of the Misfit Boys | |
| Bela's Hideous Progeny | |
| Cthulhu Mythos | |
| Lovecraft's Hideous Progeny | |
| From Scholars to the Campus Crusade for Cthulhu | |
| Homesickness | |
| Conclusion | p. 193 |
| Here Be Monsters | |
| Warning | |
| Notes | p. 197 |
| Index | p. 229 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780415925884
ISBN-10: 0415925886
Audience:
Tertiary; University or College
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 235
Published: 1st November 2001
Country of Publication: GB
Dimensions (cm): 23.77 x 16.2
x 1.42
Weight (kg): 0.35
Edition Number: 1
