Religion, Culture, and the Monstrous: Of Gods and Monsters explores the intersection of the emerging field of "monster theory" within religious studies. With case studies from ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary valleys of the Himalayas to ghost tours in Savannah, Georgia, the volume examines the variegated nature of the monstrous as well as the cultural functions of monsters in shaping how we see the world and ourselves. In this, the authors constructively assess the state of the two fields of monster theory and religious studies, and propose new directions in how these fields can inform each other. The case studies included illuminate the ways in which monsters reinforce the categories through which a given culture sees the world. At the same time, the volume points to how monsters appear to question, disrupt, or challenge those categories, creating an 'unsettling' or surplus of meaning.
Table of Contents PART I: Thinking with Monsters Chapter 1: Five Further Theses on Monster Theory and Religious Studies Natasha L. Mikles and Joseph P. Laycock Chapter 2: Re-Iterations: On Tellings, Variants, and Why Monsters Always Come Back Doug Cowan Chapter 3: Horror and Bible (Six Theses) Brandon R. Grafius Chapter 4: A Biological Model of Monster Flaps Blake Smith PART II: Monsters Guarding the Gates Chapter 5: The Idea of Evil and Messianic Deliverance in the Satpanth Ismaili Tradition of South Asia Wafi Momin Chapter 6: Ghost stories from Tales of Retribution: Understanding elements of Seventeenth-century Japanese Ghost Stories Frank Chu Chapter 7: Of Monsters and Invisible Villages: Nags myi rgod Tales of the Tibetans of Gyalthang Eric D. Mortensen Chapter 8: Godly Aromas and Monstrous Stenches: An Analysis of Buddhist New Year Fumigation Rituals in an Indo-Himalayan Borderland Rohit Singh Chapter 9: Man, Yeti, And Mi-go: The Transgressive History of A Monstrous Word Lee Weiss Chapter 10: Mesopotamian Demon Lamashtu and the Monstrosity of Gender Transgression Madadh Richey Chapter 11: Topophilic Perversions: Spectral Blackface and Fetishizing Sites of Monstrosity in American Dark Tourism Whitney May PART III: Monsters Tearing Down the Gates Chapter 12: Finding Bigfoot: The Anthropological Machine and the Generation of Monsters Timothy Grieve-Carlson Chapter 13: Thomas Jefferson: The First Cryptozoologist? Justin Mullis Chapter 14: Shapeshifters and Goddesses: Monstrosity and Otherness in the Mysticism of Gloria Anzaldu a Stefan Sanchez Chapter 15: The Monsters Within: Rape and Revenge in Genesis 34 Leland Merritt Chapter 16: Monsters Among Us: The Cathartic Carnage of American Horror Story Heidi Ippolito Chapter 17: To Eat or To Be Eaten--CHEW: A New study Between the Beast and the Sovereign Elena Pasquini
"This is a collection I've been waiting on for years. The sacred and the profane have frequently created a unnatural union in our monsters. Scholars of a variety of disciplines have tried to make sense of where these lines meet. This volume, and the incredible collection of scholars found in it, moves beyond some of the iconic studies in the field, changing much of that we think we know about monsters, religion, the sense of the holy, and how all of these intersect in our personal and collective experience. New insights pop on every page and prepare to have older theories autopsied and buried. This book combined academic rigor with a profound sense of the dangerous cultural moment in which it appears, this book will make scholars and monster fans alike rethink what those bumps in the night really mean." -- W. Scott Poole, author of Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror, College of Charleston
