Scared by the Bible: The Roots of Horror in Scripture - Softcover

Grafius, Brandon R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1640657835 ISBN 13: 9781640657830

Publisher: Morehouse Publishing, 2025

Synopsis

“…Grafius’s unflinching examination of biblical horror forces readers to reckon with the uncanny and unknowable.” –Los Angeles Review of Books 

“The result is a wide-ranging exploration of the Bible’s strangest, scariest corners.” –Publishers Weekly

“Grafius uses his extensive knowledge of horror films to tease out horror tropes from the Bible . . . this book is thought-provoking.” –Library Journal

You may know the Bible as a testament of faith. But within this sacred book are also the world’s first horror stories.

Conventional wisdom has it that the origins of the horror genre are found in the nineteenth century, in works like Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this paradigm-shaking new book, Bible scholar and cultural historian Brandon Grafius argues that the Bible is, among other things, the world’s first work of horror literature. 
 
The tropes and themes that we find in slasher movies, body horror, folk horror and zombie apocalypses were kickstarted by the Bible. Before Godzilla, there were the monsters arising from the sea in the book of Daniel. Before The Wicker Man, there was the folk horror violence of the book of Judges. And before The Fly, Leviticus and Paul understood that our bodies are untrustworthy. Sometimes, the Bible has decided that the best way to help us understand the world in new ways is to scare us.
 
Grafius’s book is a revelatory work of biblical scholarship as well as a cultural analysis of the contemporary horror genre. It is a book that will make readers revise how they see the Bible and impact how they consume horror literature and cinema. It is guaranteed to make them wiser consumers of both.
 

About this title

About the Author

Brandon R. Grafius is associate professor of Biblical Studies at Ecumenical Theological Seminary, Detroit. In addition to his teaching, he is a noted scholar, author, and speaker. As an author and academic, Brandon is known for his expertise in the fields of both Bible and horror. A member of both the Society of Biblical Literature and the Horror Writers’ Association, Grafius completed his Master of Divinity at Ecumenical Theological Seminary, then earned his PhD from Chicago Theological Seminary under the direction of Dr. Timothy Sandoval. His book, Lurking Under the Surface: Horror, Religion, and the Questions that Haunt Us (Broadleaf Books, 2022) was widely praised, with the Los Angles Review of Books calling it a “surprising, and often insightful, eclectic intellectual enterprise.” He lives in Mason, Michigan. 

Edition details

• Publisher: Morehouse Publishing
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1640657835
• ISBN 13: 9781640657830
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256