Christianity and Horror Cinema
Christianity and Horror Cinema explores ways that Christian beliefs, spiritualities, practices, and symbols provide the religious and existential "depths" out of which the monsters of Western horror cinema have emerged, arguing that they are, in several respects, the monsters for which Christians are responsible. Horror cinema preys on Christianity’s narrative, moral, cultural, and aesthetic traditions; reverses them; upends them; inverts them; and offends them. But it also reflects and relies on them. The book focuses on seven subgenres in the cinema of horror: ghosts, witches, the demonic or Satanic, vampires, nature horror, zombies, and psychological horror. Each chapter traces the history of that subgenre, taking up a theological analysis of ways that horror cinema capitalizes on ambiguities, contradictions, anxieties, and tensions in Christianity—for example, its treatment of the body, nature, sexuality, women, or those it deems pagan or religiously "other." The author examines a variety of films that are important for thinking about the relationship of Christianity to horror cinema. The book will be of interest to scholars of religion, theology, and film studies.

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Christianity and Horror Cinema
Christianity and Horror Cinema explores ways that Christian beliefs, spiritualities, practices, and symbols provide the religious and existential "depths" out of which the monsters of Western horror cinema have emerged, arguing that they are, in several respects, the monsters for which Christians are responsible. Horror cinema preys on Christianity’s narrative, moral, cultural, and aesthetic traditions; reverses them; upends them; inverts them; and offends them. But it also reflects and relies on them. The book focuses on seven subgenres in the cinema of horror: ghosts, witches, the demonic or Satanic, vampires, nature horror, zombies, and psychological horror. Each chapter traces the history of that subgenre, taking up a theological analysis of ways that horror cinema capitalizes on ambiguities, contradictions, anxieties, and tensions in Christianity—for example, its treatment of the body, nature, sexuality, women, or those it deems pagan or religiously "other." The author examines a variety of films that are important for thinking about the relationship of Christianity to horror cinema. The book will be of interest to scholars of religion, theology, and film studies.

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Christianity and Horror Cinema

Christianity and Horror Cinema

by Bryan P. Stone
Christianity and Horror Cinema

Christianity and Horror Cinema

by Bryan P. Stone

Hardcover

$190.00 
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Overview

Christianity and Horror Cinema explores ways that Christian beliefs, spiritualities, practices, and symbols provide the religious and existential "depths" out of which the monsters of Western horror cinema have emerged, arguing that they are, in several respects, the monsters for which Christians are responsible. Horror cinema preys on Christianity’s narrative, moral, cultural, and aesthetic traditions; reverses them; upends them; inverts them; and offends them. But it also reflects and relies on them. The book focuses on seven subgenres in the cinema of horror: ghosts, witches, the demonic or Satanic, vampires, nature horror, zombies, and psychological horror. Each chapter traces the history of that subgenre, taking up a theological analysis of ways that horror cinema capitalizes on ambiguities, contradictions, anxieties, and tensions in Christianity—for example, its treatment of the body, nature, sexuality, women, or those it deems pagan or religiously "other." The author examines a variety of films that are important for thinking about the relationship of Christianity to horror cinema. The book will be of interest to scholars of religion, theology, and film studies.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781032968407
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 06/25/2025
Series: Routledge Studies in Religion and Film
Pages: 298
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Bryan P. Stone is the Leighton K. Farrell Dean of the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, USA.

Table of Contents

List of figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chapter 1 – Ghosts; Chapter 2 – Witches, Witchcraft, Paganism, and Folk Magic; Chapter 3 – The Satanic and the Demonic; Chapter 4 – Vampires; Chapter 5 – Nature Horror; Chapter 6 – Zombies; Chapter 7 – Psychological Horror; Afterword; Index.

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