Religion and Its Monsters

This brilliant, twisted, imaginative book explores religion's dark side, from the predictable monsters of sacred texts (Leviathan, Behemoth, Tiamat and Rama's monkeys) to more startling choices from popular culture: one section applies religion's laws of ritual purity and danger to the novel Dracula, for example. Beal sees religion everywhere; Frankenstein, he asserts, is ""a profoundly theological horror"" about creator-figures playing God, while contemporary teen Goths inhabit ""a counterculture infused with a mix of monstrosity and pre-modern Christian religious iconography and architecture."" When Beal concludes the book by explaining that ""our monsters are ourselves,"" it comes not as a cultural indictment from a self-satisfied pundit but an astute observation by a witty and wise fellow traveler. (Nov. 15)n