Full Description
The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters brings together the work of world-renowned scholars in Bible, theology, religion, and cultural studies to explore the monsters that rampage through the biblical text. Essays provide in-depth analysis of the Ancient Near Eastern background of these creatures, explore how they have continued to live on after the biblical text, and discuss how they remain impactful through art and literature today. The chapters not only study where monsters came from, but continually focus on what they mean, and how these meanings are generated.
These chapters work to bridge the perspectives of traditional scholarship and more postmodern ideas of monsters as cultural and rhetorical constructions. There are chapters on the Ghosts of Mesopotamia, Leviathan, and the Giants, but also on the Monstrous Jew in the Gospels and the Monstrosity of the Crucifixion. They serve both as foundational pieces of research for scholars looking to familiarize themselves with monsters and discourses of monstrosity, but also as creative and provocative examinations of how these monsters generate meaning. While working to summarize the research that has been done on biblical monsters up to the present day, this Handbook points the way forward towards new and exciting studies in unnatural creatures and the rhetoric of horror.
Contents
Introduction by Brandon R. Grafius and John W. Morehead
Background Studies
1. Overview of Monster Theory by Doug Cowan
2. Monstrous God and Monstrous Creators by Anthony Rees
3. Demons and Monsters of Mesopotamia by Anne Marie Kitz
4. Ghosts of Mesopotamia by JoAnn Scurlock
Hebrew Bible Explorations
5. Moloch by George Heider
6. Anzu by Tammi Schneider
7. Giants by Brian Doak
8. Lilith by Jessi Knippel and Leland Merritt
9. Shapeshifters in Daniel by Michael Hammett
10. Monsters of Daniel 7 by Eric Jarrard
Monsters of the Divine
11. Leviathan by Robert Miller II
12. Behemoth by Mark Sneed
13. Satan by Ryan Stokes
14. Sheol by Christopher B. Hays
15. The Mischwesen of Ezekiel by Megan Remington
Rhetoric of Control
16. The Monstrous Feminine in the Hebrew Bible by Rhiannon Graybill and Peter Sabo
17. Monstrosity in the Wisdom of Solomon by Thomas Scott Cason
New Testament Explorations
18. The Monstrosity of the Crucifixion by Richard Walsh
19. Demons in the New Testament by Archie Wright
20. The Monstrous Jew in the Gospels by Kelly J. Murphy
21. The Monstrous Dragon of Revelation by Heather Macumber
22. The Other Monsters of Revelation by David Barr
Monstrous Afterlives
23. Monstrous Angels in the Modern World by Gregory Stevenson
24. Biblical Demons in Contemporary Culture by Joseph Laycock
25. Satan in Contemporary Culture by Scott Poole
26. The Monsters of Young-Earth Creationists by Valarie Ziegler
27. Today's Apocalyptic Monsters by Elizabeth Coody
