John W. Morehead

Brandon R. Grafius

Scholars of religion have begun to explore horror and the monstrous, not only within the confines of the biblical text or the traditions of religion, but also as they proliferate into popular culture. This exploration emerges from what has long been present in horror: an engagement with the same questions that animate religious thought - questions about the nature of the divine, humanity's place in the universe, the distribution of justice, and what it means to live a good life, among many others. Such exploration often involves a theological conversation. Theology and Horror: Explorations of the Dark Religious Imagination pursues questions regarding non-physical realities, spaces where both divinity and horror dwell. Through an exploration of theology and horror, the contributors explore how questions of spirituality, divinity, and religious structures are raised, complicated, and even sometimes answered (at least partially) by works of horror.

Explorations of the Dark Religious Imagination

Theology and Horror

Religion and horror, while seemingly at odds with each other, are expressions of the same human anxieties and hopes, and frequently reach the same destination via different paths. With these important areas of overlap, horror and religion can interpret and challenge each other--and us, in the way we live our personal lives.

Horror, Religion, and the Questions That Haunt Us

Lurking Under the Surface

Keep it in the family -- History of Exegesis -- Numbers 25 and historical criticism -- Horror in theory -- Numbers 25 and horror theory -- Reading Phinehas

Horror Theory and Numbers 25

Reading Phinehas, Watching Slashers

Horror can be a valuable conversation partner for the spiritual questions that animate so many of us. Whether through a movie, television show, novel, or even myth, horror as a genre has always spoken to our deepest human fears and anxieties: fear of death, of the unknown, of knowing too much. Whether you're looking at classic narratives like Frankenstein, which shows us the consequences of stretching knowledge farther than it's safe to go, or contemporary films like Get Out, which explores racism and white guilt, horror provides a window into our culture and what makes us human. The same can be said of religion. Horror movie buff and religion scholar Brandon Grafius finds common ground between these two seemingly disparate bedfellows--horror and religion--in Lurking under the Surface. What parallels can we draw between The Walking Dead and sacred texrts? How do the stories of Hebrew Christian scriptures and apocalyptic films like A Quiet Place and Bird Box help us find hope when it's in short supply? When we treat them both seriously, we see that horror movies and religion lead us through the same sets of questions. Both explore questions of justice, hope, and our relationship to the world and the cosmos. And both offer us ways to make meaning out of the contradictory pieces of our world--a world filled with so much hope and so many recognizable fears lurking just beneath the surface.

Horror, Religion, and the Questions that Haunt Us

In this book, Brandon R. Grafius takes the reader on a tour of the dark corners of the Hebrew Bible, using contemporary horror films as a conversation partner. He examines how the Hebrew Bible can be both sacred text and tome of fright, and explores the numerous ways in which the worlds of religion and horror share uncomfortable spaces.

Reading the Bible with Horror

Gregory Stevenson

Seeing the Apocalypse: Essays on Bird Box is the first volume to explore Josh Malerman’s best-selling novel and its recent film adaptation. The essays in this collection offer an interdisciplinary approach to Bird Box, one that draws on the fields of gender studies, cultural studies, and disability studies.

Brandon R. Grafius

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