I just received this volume for review in the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.

Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques: Monstrosity and Religion in Europe and the United States, Edited by Michael E. Heyes Lexington Books, 2018

Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques examines the intersection of religion and monstrosity in a variety of different time periods in the hopes of addressing two gaps in scholarship within the field of monster studies. The first part of the volume—running from the medieval to the Early Modern period—focuses upon the view of the monster through non-majority voices and accounts from those who were themselves branded as monsters. Overlapping partially with the Early Modern and proceeding to the present day, the contributions of the second part of the volume attempt to problematize the dichotomy of secular/religious through a close look at the monsters this period has wrought.

Introduction: Ecce Monstra Michael E. Heyes
Part I: Inside the Monster, Looking Out
1. The Woman’s Body, In-Between: The Holy and Monstrous Womb in Medieval Medicine and Religion Minji Lee
2. Miracles and Monsters: Gog and Magog, Alexander the Great, and Antichrist in the Apocalypse of the Catalan Atlas (1375) Thomas S. Franke
3. Dressing Monstrous Men: Landsknechte Clothing in Some Early Modern Danish Church Wall Paintings John Block Friedman
4. Twelfth Night’s “poor monster:” Viola/Cesario as Holy Grotesque Cathleen McKague 5. Grotesques in Sacred Spaces: The Cappella dei Priori and the Cappella del Quartiere di Leone X in the Palazzo Vecchio Susanne Margarit McColeman

Part II: Monstrous Modernity
6. Monstrous Sovereignty and the Corrupt Body Politic in Richard III and The Duchess of Malfi John W. Ellis-Etchison
7. Reform and Romance: Catholic Monstrosity in Antebellum U.S. Fiction AnaMaria Seglie
8. Lovecraft’s Things: Sinister Souvenirs from Other Worlds Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
9. The Big Bad and the Big “Aha!”: Metamodern Monsters as Transformational Figures of Instability Linda C. Ceriello
10. From Revelation to Revolution: Explaining the Strange Success of Fox’s Sleepy Hollow Michael E. Heyes