Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith

by Timothy Beal

Book Overview

In the summer of 2002, Timothy K. Beal loaded his family into a twenty-nine-foot-long motor home and hit the rural highways of America in search of roadside religious attractions-sites like the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807010626
• ISBN13: 9780807010624
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Beacon Press (MA)
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Religious Travels

This journey account by Timothy Beal is an incredible expedition with his family throughout the United States. A search for "... the sacred, the strange, and the substance of faith". It all started outside Prattville, Alabama with a sea of crosses and signs of doom and the rewards of a sinful life. The Cross Garden is more than just an amalgamation of wooden objects and words but a statement of faith by the man who, with a vision from God, started its construction, his wife who supports him and the visitors who wander by. Like the journeys of Bill Bryson throughout Great Britain; but these in search of the God experience behind the images, Beal brings us from The Holy Land Experience, to a Disneyesque theme park in Orlando, and onto a Biblically themed Golf Course, followed by a man who is building Noah's Ark in Frostburg, Maryland, to the largest Ten Commandments in the country in North Carolina, to the Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman, Alabama and countless attractions in-between. I thoroughly enjoyed this travel log complete with RV and family. Each stop indicated a struggle and a creation out of some grief in life. The most unique of the visits I felt was the one to the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, Missouri. Each of the figures is a precious creation of its artist Samuel Butcher. Fashioned like his Precious Moment figurines that are popular collectables, each of the biblical scenes is populated by Precious Moment children. Interesting enough, however, the only figure that is not fashioned like the children is the figure of Christ. Like many of the sites visited, this one was born out of the pain of the death of a Son. Almost cathartic in nature, this site is a work of love and a way of dealing with loss. The response from the visitors often is one of identification and empathy. Some also are able to deal with their own loss as a result of the experience. Over 400,000 visitors come each year, one of the most popular of these types of sites. In this and many other sites, Beal tries to find meaning and a relatable religious experience. I was impressed by his ability to uncover, even in the most bizarre of `theme parks", something worthwhile. It almost makes you want to go out of your way to visit some of these sites.

Best Religion Book of the Year

A witty, charming, and eye-opening jaunt on the offbeat side of religion. A great book to pack along on your next trip along the blue highways of America. Move over William Least-Heat Moon.

Roadside Sermons

Four years ago, Timothy K. Beal and his family were driving through the Appalachian Highlands of Maryland when they saw a steel girder framework for an upcoming building, incongruously set in a grassy field. A large sign said "NOAH'S ARK BEING REBUILT HERE!" They drove on by, but Beal, a professor of religion, started keeping a list of roadside religious attractions all around the country, and in the summer of 2002, the family rented a mobile home and hit the highways of the Bible Belt to get to see the Ark in progress and many other religious sites constructed out of piety, inspiration, or enterprise. In _Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith_ (Beacon Press), Beal gives a report on what he saw, and what he thought, and especially how he felt. Skeptics like myself probably would be happier with a book that conveyed amusement and incredulity at the sights, and Beal's book does have such a tone in many places. Indeed, Beal started out with a plan of a book of "witty and wry observation," but although it is funny in many places, it is altogether more respectful, sympathetic, and understanding of these very odd shrines than he originally expected. Near Mammoth Cave in Kentucky are plenty of roadside attractions, but on Beal's list is Golgotha Fun Park, a miniature golf course which is described in a chapter wittily titled "Stations of the Course". Bizarrely, the name comes from the Aramaic for "the skull" and is the name of the place where the gospels say the crucifixion happened. Some fun. There are some ceramic skulls on the sixteenth hole: "Although they don't pose much of a putting challenge, they _are_ rather creepy and distracting." The eighteen holes tell the story from creation to Resurrection. At hole four, Moses parts the Red Sea to let your ball pass, and on the back nine, representing the New Testament, Mary and Martha kneel prayerfully on either side of the putting green assigned to them. The eighteenth hole has a statue of the risen Christ, encouragingly looking on as golfers take their final shot, and it is the easiest hole on the course. "It's not easy to venture a theological interpretation of Golgotha Fun Park," Beal assures us, but he is compelled to try anyway, interpreting the obstacles (any good miniature golf course needs obstacles) as not only athletic, but theological - believers conquer smaller ones on the way to the big one, the belief in the risen God. Beal is content to be instructed by these roadside visions, but he is not uncritical. At the Fields of the Wood near Murphy, North Carolina, is the world's largest Ten Commandments, concrete letters five feet high on a hillside. The intent here, Beal says, is to inspire religious awe "in the face of a sacred law that is overwhelmingly, _ineffably huge_ in a most literal way." It's not what the words say, but how big they are. This is, Beal concludes, "the Word of God as image, and I dare say idol." The comman