If you’ve wanted a copy of Nightmares with the Bible but the cost is a little dear, I might recommend you look on the Reading Religion website where, as of my last look, a free review copy is available. The catch is you have to write a review. This is, of course, first come, first served service. I tried, more than once, to get Holy Horror listed on their website for review, so I’m glad to see one of my books finally made it. The idea of the horror hermeneutic seems to be catching on. Technically speaking, however, what I’m doing is more history of religions than hermeneutics. History of religions, at least part of it, examines whence ideas arise. Nightmares asks that question specifically about demons.
The specific focus on horror in religion is a fairly new field of study. Biblical scholars—indeed, those who specialize in very old fields of study in general—must keep looking for new angles. Unlike any other piece of literature, the Good Book has been the target of scholarly interest from the very beginning of the western academic tradition. It’s easy to forget, when looking at many secular powerhouse schools, that the very idea of higher education arose from what is now the discipline of the lowest paid of academic posts. Being so old, religious studies, known at the time as theology, is hardly a venerated field. I tend to think it’ll come back. If you look at what’s happening in politics in this country, it’s bound too. And yes, there will be horror.
Horror studies in the field operates by recognizing that horror and religion share common ground. Like religion, horror is considered backward and uninformed. Neither is really true of either horror or religion, but perception becomes reality for most people. Finding themselves in remedial class together religion and horror have begun to speak to one another. Horror has quite a following, even if those who like it keep mostly quiet about it. The same is true of religion. Many of the most effective horror films bring religion directly into the mix, often making it the actual basis of the horror. The first books that I know of that brought the two explicitly together only began appearing at the turn of the millennium. At first there were very few. Now an increasing number of tomes have begun to appear. For better or worse, two of mine are in the mix. If you’d like to review the most recent one, you might check out Reading Religion, and maybe spare a kind word or two for what are, after all, baby steps.