Body and Blood: Catholic Horror in America (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781479845859)

Vendor: Matthew J. Cressler
Product type: Books
Format: Paperback
$30.00
$30.00
$30.00
Subtotal: $30.00
WR Book House

Body and Blood: Catholic Horror in America

$30.00

Body and Blood: Catholic Horror in America

$30.00
Format: Paperback
Description
Description
x

Exposes the deep Catholic roots of American horror

From exorcisms to suffocating catacombs, grinning corpses, and electric holy water, Catholicism and American horror go hand in hand. Body and Blood cuts horror open to reveal how the Catholic tradition has shaped its supernatural and grotesque aesthetics in the modern world.

Making the case that it is impossible to understand the enduring popularity of horror without recognizing its religious elements, this volume makes two groundbreaking claims. First, that there is a profoundly Catholic current coursing through modern American horror and that the genre comes alive in new ways when we hold it to the light of the Catholic past. And second, that Catholic history is horrifying in ways that demand our attention, ranging from the supernatural figures who visited children with visions of the apocalypse to settler colonialism and clergy sexual abuse. Catholicism is not exceptional in its capacity to horrify, of course. However, this book shows how contending with the Catholic dimension of the genre teaches us something important about horror and its hold on audiences in the United States, and it invites us to understand Catholicism anew.

Offering a shocking view of Catholic history as you have never seen it before, Body and Blood presents both scholars and fans alike with an accessible entry into the dark underbelly of America's religious landscape.

Author: Matthew J. Cressler,Kathleen Holscher,Jack Lee Downey
ISBN-10: 147984585X
ISBN-13: 9781479845859
Publisher: New York University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/01/2026
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
By Matthew J. Cressler
By Matthew J. Cressler
x
Matthew J. Cressler (Author)
Matthew J. Cressler is an independent scholar, the author of Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migrations, and creator of the educational webcomic series Bad Catholics, Good Trouble.

Jack Lee Downey (Author)
Jack Lee Downey is Associate Professor of Religion and Classics, and John Henry Newman Chair in Roman Catholic Studies at the University of Rochester. He is the author of The Bread of the Strong: Lacouturisme and the Folly of the Cross.

Kathleen Holscher (Author)
Kathleen Holscher is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies at University of New Mexico and author of Religious Lessons: Catholic Sisters and Captured Schools Crisis in New Mexico.

Michael Pasquier (Author)
Michael Pasquier is the Jaak Seynaeve Professor of Christian Studies and Professor of Religious Studies and History at Louisiana State University. He is the author of Religion in America: The Basics.

Recently Viewed Products