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Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques

Author : Michael E. Heyes

Publisher : Lexington Books

Page : 291 pages

File Size : 24,59 MB

Release : 2018-08-10

Category : Religion

ISBN : 1498550770

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Book Description

Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques examines the intersection of religion and monstrosity in a variety of different time periods in the hopes of addressing two gaps in scholarship within the field of monster studies. The first part of the volume—running from the medieval to the Early Modern period—focuses upon the view of the monster through non-majority voices and accounts from those who were themselves branded as monsters. Overlapping partially with the Early Modern and proceeding to the present day, the contributions of the second part of the volume attempt to problematize the dichotomy of secular/religious through a close look at the monsters this period has wrought.



Theology and Horror

Author : Brandon R. Grafius

Publisher : Lexington Books

Page : 252 pages

File Size : 38,95 MB

Release : 2021-03-02

Category : Religion

ISBN : 1978707991

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Book Description

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.



A Guidebook to Monsters

Author : Ryan J. Stark

Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers

Page : 101 pages

File Size : 16,61 MB

Release : 2024-02-23

Category : Philosophy

ISBN : 1666784699

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Book Description

Ryan J. Stark surveys the classic monsters in great literature and film, television, the Bible, and, perhaps unexpectedly, the world in which we live. Monsterdom is real, Stark observes, but often hidden beneath the concealment spell of modern secular thought. This guidebook aims to break that spell, and, if so, to confirm once more a world that brims with high strangeness, or what Christian philosophers have always called “reality.” The book appeals to those who study the paranormal dimensions of religion and horror, broadly imagined. The clergy will also find it helpful, as will players of monster-riddled video games.



Margaret's Monsters

Author : Michael E. Heyes

Publisher : Routledge

Page : 234 pages

File Size : 50,24 MB

Release : 2019-12-06

Category : History

ISBN : 0429588607

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Book Description

St. Margaret of Antioch was one of the most popular saints in medieval England and, throughout the Middle Ages, the various Lives of St. Margaret functioned as a blueprint for a virginal life and supernatural assistance to pregnant women during the dangerous process of labor. In her narrative, Margaret is accosted by various demons and, having defeated each monster in turn, she is taken to the place of her martyrdom where she prays for supernatural boons for her adherents. This book argues that Margaret’s monsters are a key element in understanding Margaret’s importance to her adherents, specifically how the sexual identities of her adherents were constructed and maintained. More broadly, this study offers three major contributions to the field of medieval studies: first, it argues for the utility of a diachronic analysis of Saints’ Lives literature in a field dominated by synchronic analyses; second, this diachronic analysis is important to interpreting the intertext of Saints’ Lives, not only between different Lives but also different versions of the same Life; and third, the approach further suggests that the most valuable socio-cultural information in hagiographic literature is found in the auxiliary characters and not in the figure of the saint him/herself.



Scary Monsters

Author : Mark Duffett

Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Page : 365 pages

File Size : 25,26 MB

Release : 2021-01-14

Category : Music

ISBN : 1501313398

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Book Description

Popular music and masculinity have rarely been examined through the lens of research into monstrosity. The discourses associated with rock and pop, however, actually include more 'monsters' than might at first be imagined. Attention to such individuals and cultures can say things about the operation of genre and gender, myth and meaning. Indeed, monstrosity has recently become a growing focus of cultural theory. This is in part because monsters raise shared concerns about transgression, subjectivity, agency, and community. Attention to monstrosity evokes both the spectre of projection (which invokes familial trauma and psychoanalysis) and shared anxieties (that in turn reflect ideologies and beliefs). By pursuing a series of insightful case studies, Scary Monsters considers different aspects of the connection between music, gender and monstrosity. Its argument is that attention to monstrosity provides a unique perspective on the study of masculinity in popular music culture.



Future Folk Horror

Author : Simon Bacon

Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield

Page : 347 pages

File Size : 38,46 MB

Release : 2023-07-24

Category : Social Science

ISBN : 1666921246

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Book Description

Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures analyzes folk horror by looking at its recent popularity in novels and films such as The Ritual (2011), The Witch (2015), and Candyman (2021). Countering traditional views of the genre as depictions of the monstrous, rural, and pagan past trying to consume the present, the contributors to this collection posit folk horror as being able to uniquely capture the anxieties of the twenty-first century, caused by an ongoing pandemic and the divisive populist politics that have arisen around it. Further, this book shows how, through its increasing intersections with other genres such as science fiction, the weird, and eco-criticism as seen in films and texts like The Zero Theorum (2013), The Witcher (2007–2021), and Annihilation (2018) as well as through its engagement with topics around climate change, racism, and identity politics, folk horror can point to other ways of being in the world and visions of possible futures.



Handbook of Scientology

Author : James R. Lewis

Publisher : BRILL

Page : 620 pages

File Size : 11,52 MB

Release : 2017-01-05

Category : Religion

ISBN : 9004330542

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Book Description

The Handbook of Scientology brings together a collection of fresh studies of the most persistently controversial of all contemporary New Religions. In recent years, increasing scholarly attention has been directed at the Church of Scientology, resulting in a small tsunami of new scholarship. We have finally reached a point in time where a book on Scientology need not restrict itself to basics. Thus, for example, the historical chapters in the present volume are not really aimed at providing elementary facts on Scientology’s background, but, rather, focus on understanding how the Church of Scientology developed over the years. In short, the Handbook of Scientology will provide a wealth of new information on a topic that one might otherwise have thought exhausted. Contributors are Matthew Charet, Dorthe Refslund Christensen, Carole M. Cusack, Bernard Doherty, Marco Frenschkowski, Liselotte Frisk, Kjersti Hellesøy, Don Jolly, James R. Lewis, Renee Lockwood, András Máté-Tóth, Gábor Dániel Nagy, Johanna Petsche, Erin Prophet, Susan Raine, David G. Robertson, Mikael Rothstein, Lisbeth Tuxin Rubin, Nicole S. Ruskell, Shannon Trosper Schorey, Michelle Swainson, Inga Bårdsen Tøllefsen, Hugh G. Urban, Donald A. Westbrook, and Benjamin Zeller.



Being Spiritual but Not Religious

Author : William B. Parsons

Publisher : Routledge

Page : 281 pages

File Size : 23,50 MB

Release : 2018-05-30

Category : Religion

ISBN : 1351607057

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Book Description

In its most general sense, the term "Spiritual but Not Religious" denotes those who, on the one hand, are disillusioned with traditional institutional religion and, on the other hand, feel that those same traditions contain deep wisdom about the human condition. This edited collection speaks to what national surveys agree is a growing social phenomenon referred to as the "Spiritual but Not Religious Movement" (SBNRM). Each essay of the volume engages the past, present and future(s) of the SBNRM. Their collective contribution is analytic, descriptive, and prescriptive, taking stock of not only the various analyses of the SBNRM to date but also the establishment of a new ground upon which the continued academic discussion can take place. This volume is a watershed in the growing academic and public interest in the SBNRM. As such, it will vital reading for any academic involved in Religious Studies, Spirituality and Sociology.



The Paranormal and Popular Culture

Author : Darryl Caterine

Publisher : Routledge

Page : 449 pages

File Size : 20,74 MB

Release : 2019-02-18

Category : Religion

ISBN : 1351731815

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Book Description

Interest in preternatural and supernatural themes has revitalized the Gothic tale, renewed explorations of psychic powers and given rise to a host of social and religious movements based upon claims of the fantastical. And yet, in spite of this widespread enthusiasm, the academic world has been slow to study this development. This volume rectifies this gap in current scholarship by serving as an interdisciplinary overview of the relationship of the paranormal to the artefacts of mass media (e.g. novels, comic books, and films) as well as the cultural practices they inspire. After an introduction analyzing the paranormal’s relationship to religion and entertainment, the book presents essays exploring its spiritual significance in a postmodern society; its (post)modern representation in literature and film; and its embodiment in a number of contemporary cultural practices. Contributors from a number of discplines and cultural contexts address issues such as the shamanistic aspects of Batman and lesbianism in vampire mythology. Covering many aspects of the paranormal and its effect on popular culture, this book is an important statement in the field. As such, it will be of utmost interest to scholars of religious studies as well as media, communication, and cultural studies.



Transcending Postmodernism

Author : Raoul Eshelman

Publisher : Taylor & Francis

Page : 210 pages

File Size : 34,36 MB

Release : 2024-12-02

Category : Literary Criticism

ISBN : 1040253849

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Book Description

Transcending Postmodernism: Performatism 2.0 is an ambitious attempt to expand and deepen the theory of performatism. Its main thesis is that, beginning in the mid-1990s, the strategies and norms of postmodernism have been displaced by ones that force readers or viewers to experience effects of aesthetically mediated transcendence. These effects include specific temporal strategies (“chunking”), stylizing separated subjectivity (the genius and the fool being its two main poles) and orienting ethics toward actions taken by centered agents bearing a sacral charge. The book provides a critical overview of other theories of post-postmodernism, and suggests that among five text-oriented theories there is basic agreement on its techniques and strategies.