Religion and Its Monsters

Religion's great and powerful mystery fascinates us, but it also terrifies. So too the monsters that haunt the stories of the Judeo-Christian mythos 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 about how monsters and religion are deeply entwined. Horror and faith are inextricable. Ans as monsters are part of religious texts and traditions, so religion lurks in the modern horror genre, from its birth in Dante's Inferno to the contemporary spookiness of H.P. Lovecraft and the Hellraiser films. Religion and ItsMonsters is essential reading for students of religion and popular culture, as well as any readers with an interest in horror.

Timothy K. Beal holds the Harkness Chair of Biblical Literature at Case Western Reserve University. He is author of The Book of Hiding and co-editor of ReadingBibles, Writing Bodies, both published by Routledge.