{"id":69090,"date":"2019-09-08T04:56:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T08:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=69090"},"modified":"2019-09-02T13:42:34","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T17:42:34","slug":"horror-and-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2019\/09\/horror-and-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"Horror and Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From an interview in\u00a0USA Today<\/em> with\u00a0Guillermo del Toro<\/a>:<\/p>\n

His religious grandmother instilled a passion for both the supernatural and separating right from wrong. \u201cIt was a lot of Catholic scare about sin and hell. \u2018You\u2019re going to be in purgatory if you\u2019re not careful, and blah, blah, blah \u2026 Maybe even if you\u00a0are\u00a0<\/i>careful!\u2019 \u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m eager to explore themes that lend themselves easily to metaphor,\u201d he says. \u201cThe fantastic is the only tool we have nowadays to explain spirituality to a generation that refuses to believe in dogma or religion. Superhero movies create a kind of mythology. Creature movies, horror movies, create at least a belief in something beyond.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s more about religion in other parts of the interview<\/a> not quoted here. Of related interest, Steve Wiggins wrote<\/a>,<\/p>\n

Those of us who study religion professionally have been taught to call the blending of religions \u201csyncretism.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve stopped using that word for it because it assumes that there are pure forms of religion.\u00a0\u00a0Religion always takes on an individual element.\u00a0\u00a0We make it our own when it gets translated into our personal gray matter.\u00a0\u00a0The idea that there is a pure form of any religion requires an arbiter of greater rank than any here on earth.\u00a0\u00a0You can always say \u201cbut I think it means\u2026\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Horror, I suspect, latched onto this truth long ago.\u00a0\u00a0Without some hint of doubt about your own individualized belief system, it\u2019s difficult to be afraid.\u00a0\u00a0Horror need not be about blood and gore.\u00a0\u00a0Often it isn\u2019t.\u00a0\u00a0Often it\u2019s a matter of asking yourself what you believe.\u00a0\u00a0And once you answer it, opening yourself to asking questions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve never been a big fan of the horror genre. Even those works that are both horror and sci-fi grab my interest less than other science fiction works. But I can appreciate nevertheless the ways that horror is interesting and important for those who study the intersection of theology and popular culture. Some early modern works in the horror genre, like Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula<\/i>, are woven through with elements that are theologically interesting, and the entire worldview that horror presupposes has theological implications.<\/p>\n

Of possible related interest, take a look at the Encyclopedia Mythica online<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From an interview in\u00a0USA Today with\u00a0Guillermo del Toro: His religious grandmother instilled a passion for both the supernatural and separating right from wrong. \u201cIt was a lot of Catholic scare about sin and hell. \u2018You\u2019re going to be in purgatory if you\u2019re not careful, and blah, blah, blah \u2026 Maybe even if you\u00a0are\u00a0careful!\u2019 \u201d he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":69504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16269,80],"tags":[4771],"class_list":["post-69090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-religion","tag-horror"],"yoast_head":"\nHorror and Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From an interview in\u00a0USA Today with\u00a0Guillermo del Toro: His religious grandmother instilled a passion for both the supernatural and separating right from\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2019\/09\/horror-and-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Horror and Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From an interview in\u00a0USA Today with\u00a0Guillermo del Toro: His religious grandmother instilled a passion for both the supernatural and separating right from\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2019\/09\/horror-and-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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