Table Of ContentRELIGION AND ITS MONSTERS
Religious encounters with mystery can be fascinating, but also terrifying. So
too when it comes to encounters with the monsters that haunt Jewish and
Christian traditions. Religion has a lot to do with horror, and horror has a
lot to do with religion. Religion has its monsters, and monsters have their
religion. In this unusual and provocative book, Timothy Beal explores how
religion, horror and the monstrous are deeply intertwined.
This new edition has been thoughtfully updated, reflecting on develop-
ments in the field over the past two decades and highlighting its contributions
to emerging conversations. It also features a new chapter, “Gods, Monsters,
and Machines,” which engages cultural fascinations and anxieties about tech-
nologies of artificial intelligence and machine learning as they relate to reli-
gion and the monstrous at the dawn of the Anthropocene.
Religion and Its Monsters is essential reading for students and scholars of reli-
gion and popular culture, as well as for any readers with an interest in horror
theory or monster theory.
Timothy Beal is Distinguished University Professor, Florence Harkness Profes-
sor of Religion, and Director of h.lab at Case Western Reserve University. He
has published essays on religion and culture for The New York Times, The Chronicle
of Higher Education, The Wall Street Journal, CNN.com and The Washington Post
and is the author of several books, including The Rise and Fall of the Bible and
When Time Is Short: Finding Our Way in the Anthropocene.
RELIGION AND ITS
MONSTERS
SECOND EDITION
Timothy Beal
Cover image: Maltaguy1/Getty Images
Second edition published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Timothy Beal
The right of Timothy Beal to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Routledge 2002
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Beal, Timothy K. (Timothy Kandler), 1963- author.
Title: Religion and its monsters / Timothy Beal.
Description: Second edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022025252 | ISBN 9780367440381 (hbk) |
ISBN 9780367440541 (pbk) | ISBN 9781003007302 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Theodicy.
Classification: LCC BT160 .B35 2022 | DDC 214--dc23/
eng/20220907
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022025252
ISBN: 978-0-367-44038-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-44054-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-00730-2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003007302
Typeset in Bembo
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
In Memory of Joel Clayton Hurd
O nobly-born, the Great Glorious Buddha-Heruka, … with three heads,
six hands, and four feet firmly postured … the body emitting flames of
radiance; the nine eyes widely opened, in terrifying gaze; the eyebrows
quivering like lightning; the protruding teeth glistening and set over one
another; giving vent to sonorous utterances of “a-la-la” and “ha-ha”; and
piercing whistling sounds … will come forth from within thine own
brain and shine vividly upon thee. Fear that not.
—Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol), I, II
(trans. Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup)
I saw one like the Son of Man …. His head and hair were white as
white wool … his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like bur-
nished bronze … and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his
right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-
edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force …. He
placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid.”
—Apocalypse of John 1:12–17
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction to the Second Edition 1
Introduction to the First Edition: Religion and Its Monsters,
Monsters and Their Religion 14
PART I
Religion and Its Monsters 23
1 Chaos Gods: Cosmic Horrors from the Ancient Near East 25
2 The Bible and Horror: Making and Unmaking the World 35
3 The Sleep of Wisdom: Job and the Abyss of Suffering 44
4 From the Whirlwind: Where God Outmonsters Job 54
5 Dinner and a Show: Watching and Eating Monsters with
the Rabbis 63
6 To the Devil: John’s Great Red Dragon 75
viii Contents
PART II
Monsters and Their Religion 89
7 New Monsters in Old Skins: Modern Awe and Order 91
8 Other Gods: Colonialism and Its Monsters 103
9 The Blood Is the Life: Ritual Purity and Danger in Dracula 122
10 Screening Monsters: Movie Time, Sacred Time 138
11 Ecomonsters: The Return of the Ecologically Repressed 155
12 Our Monsters, Ourselves: Sacred Horror Culture 166
13 Gods, Monsters and Machines: Artificial Intelligence in the
Anthropocene 182
Conclusion: Here Be Monsters 193
Index 196
PREFACE
I’m very glad for the opportunity to offer a new edition of this book, which
was first published more than two decades ago. An awful lot of outstand-
ing research and writing at the nexus of religion, horror and the monstrous
has emerged since then. So much so, in fact, that some of it is working in
spaces very close to those explored in this book without apparently realizing it.
Which is of course how it always goes. No doubt I was doing the same thing
with this book back in 2001.
Still, working on this new edition has been a wonderful opportunity to
remember the book to myself; to remove some of the layers of articles, lec-
tures, courses and book talks that came after it; to recollect my own process of
writing and research and to think about what I want to do with it now.
I had at first intended to revise the book entirely, revisiting most every
paragraph and endnote in order to integrate and engage scholarship published
since its first edition. But that proved impossible, creating a kind of intratex-
tual feedback loop in which this second version would be quoting and reflect-
ing on works that are quoting and reflecting on its earlier version.
Instead, I have reframed and recontextualized the first edition on a new
horizon that it could not have anticipated. I offer a new introduction, setting
this book in the context of what has become a large field of research with
many fascinating and important subfields, and highlighting some of what I
think are this book’s most important and more or less enduring contributions
in relation to what has emerged since.
I have removed certain discussions and cultural references that are par-
ticularly stale by now and have slightly revised a few others in order to
refresh them. Some may wish I had removed or replaced a lot more. But I’ve
kept what I’ve kept because I’m less interested in being contemporary with
