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Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith
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 World's Largest Ten Commandments and Precious Moments Chapel. Roadside Religion tells of his attempts to understand the meaning of these places as expressions of religious imagination and experience, and to encounter faith in all its awesome absurdity.
224 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2005
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87 people want to read
About the author
Timothy Beal
21 books36 followersTimothy Beal is Distinguished University Professor, Florence Harkness Professor of Religion, and Director of h.lab at Case Western Reserve University. He has published sixteen books, including When Time Is Short: Finding Our Way in the Anthropocene (Beacon Press, 2022) and The Book of Revelation: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2018), for which he won a Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has also written popular essays on religion and culture for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Christian Century, among others.
Tim was born in Hood River, Oregon and grew up near Anchorage, Alaska. He now commutes between Cleveland, Ohio, where he works, and Denver, Colorado, where he lives with his wife, Clover Reuter Beal, a Presbyterian minister. They have two grown kids, Sophie and Seth.
Tim was born in Hood River, Oregon and grew up near Anchorage, Alaska. He now commutes between Cleveland, Ohio, where he works, and Denver, Colorado, where he lives with his wife, Clover Reuter Beal, a Presbyterian minister. They have two grown kids, Sophie and Seth.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 4, 2021
How could I not be excited to discover this book when the unfinished Noah’s Ark on the cover is in my hometown county and — allow me to make this all about me for a moment — in the town I most strongly associate with religion because it’s where my mom dragged me to church and Sunday school for years. These are some...grim memories, with that ark, a bit of a local joke, always in the background.
Anyway! Nothing much happens or comes out of that area so I thought at first there was another one half-heartedly being sorta-built somewhere. Imagine my delight that oh no — it’s ours. And that story was fascinating (if way too short!) and something I never even knew, having spent half my life there: the guy behind it, a pastor who had visions of Noah and the ark, is also a “healer” and some people claim to have been healed just from being on the grounds of unfinished Noah’s ark. Oh what a world.
I liked this even more than I expected to. It’s the perfect balance between exploration, openness, analysis, and a quiet humor that is never condescending or insulting - something that surprised me, because I think I never could’ve done the same. Good on him. He also interweaves his own thoughts about what faith and belief mean and the different forms they can take, a bit about his journey out of evangelical Christianity, along with more philosophical musings on American ideas of place and space and the long, long tradition of incorporating fantasy elements of the Bible into reality. As a cynical atheist I found myself surprised at how adept he was at straddling the line between allowing for the importance of beliefs while acknowledging why they exist and what purpose they serve. He did it so simply and eloquently.
My only problem really was that I would’ve liked more - each chapter feels pretty brief, especially when you know what he’s capable of in blending humor, history, parsing reality from myth and with a keen and entertaining observational eye on top of it all.
Anyway! Nothing much happens or comes out of that area so I thought at first there was another one half-heartedly being sorta-built somewhere. Imagine my delight that oh no — it’s ours. And that story was fascinating (if way too short!) and something I never even knew, having spent half my life there: the guy behind it, a pastor who had visions of Noah and the ark, is also a “healer” and some people claim to have been healed just from being on the grounds of unfinished Noah’s ark. Oh what a world.
I liked this even more than I expected to. It’s the perfect balance between exploration, openness, analysis, and a quiet humor that is never condescending or insulting - something that surprised me, because I think I never could’ve done the same. Good on him. He also interweaves his own thoughts about what faith and belief mean and the different forms they can take, a bit about his journey out of evangelical Christianity, along with more philosophical musings on American ideas of place and space and the long, long tradition of incorporating fantasy elements of the Bible into reality. As a cynical atheist I found myself surprised at how adept he was at straddling the line between allowing for the importance of beliefs while acknowledging why they exist and what purpose they serve. He did it so simply and eloquently.
My only problem really was that I would’ve liked more - each chapter feels pretty brief, especially when you know what he’s capable of in blending humor, history, parsing reality from myth and with a keen and entertaining observational eye on top of it all.
December 19, 2007
Heard part of an interview with Mr. Beal last month on the Bob Edwards show - I submitted a purchase request to the library and lo & behold, they bought a copy!
Timothy Beal, a professor of religion who is also married to a Presbyterian minister, spent a few summers (one with his family in an RV) exploring the world of structures and attractions that people have felt compelled to build to honor and share their faith. Some attractions are more professional and/or commercial - The Holy Land Experience in Orlando (discussed in a chapter called "Magic Kingdom Come") or the Precious Moments Chapel in Missouri. Others are homegrown and may represent someone's life work. The latter represent a sort of "outsider religion" - as with outsider art, it challenges the viewer's preconceptions.
Due perhaps to the geographical area he covered (the eastern section of the Midwest), most of the attractions he visits are based more in an evangelical Christian tradition; however, he also finds examples of Catholic-oriented monuments, such as a rosary museum and the Ave Maria Grotto. Representations of the Holy Land (with varying levels of accuracy) are also very popular exhibits.
I will admit to the occasional snarky thought - wondering what kind of nutcase would paint hellfire & damnation messages on broken appliances and scatter them around the yard; however, Beal treats each person he meets with respect and a genuine interest, drawing out their beliefs and relating it to a larger religious experience. The result is a thoughtful reflection on individual faith journeys, as well as an examination of how religious traditions have evolved.
Recommended to anyone with an interest in "outsider" culture, as well as basic philosophy with a religious bent.
Notes and Quotes
* Geopiety: a deep religious devotion to a vision of The Holy Land - not nesc historically or geographically accurate.
* Holy Land USA - "a story-shaped world" - definite beginning & end and to be traversed in a specific order.
* Golgotha Fun Park ?!?!?! (now closed)
* American Evangelical Christianity - seen as very conservative; yet quite liberal in selecting elements of pop culture to spread the gospel (i.e. mini-golf)
* Outsider religion: outsider status provides a unique vision of faith - but is this cause or effect?
* Some displays (World's Largest 10 Commandments) - verge on idolatry/graven images?
* Precious Moments Chapel - all figures except for Jesus are children - equates faith with childhood?
"With Biblical minigolf, then, sacred narrative, the Greatest Story Ever Told, meets one of the most trivial of all American amusements."
"Faith requires one to go further than trust allows."
"To be in the image of God is to be creative like the Creator."
Timothy Beal, a professor of religion who is also married to a Presbyterian minister, spent a few summers (one with his family in an RV) exploring the world of structures and attractions that people have felt compelled to build to honor and share their faith. Some attractions are more professional and/or commercial - The Holy Land Experience in Orlando (discussed in a chapter called "Magic Kingdom Come") or the Precious Moments Chapel in Missouri. Others are homegrown and may represent someone's life work. The latter represent a sort of "outsider religion" - as with outsider art, it challenges the viewer's preconceptions.
Due perhaps to the geographical area he covered (the eastern section of the Midwest), most of the attractions he visits are based more in an evangelical Christian tradition; however, he also finds examples of Catholic-oriented monuments, such as a rosary museum and the Ave Maria Grotto. Representations of the Holy Land (with varying levels of accuracy) are also very popular exhibits.
I will admit to the occasional snarky thought - wondering what kind of nutcase would paint hellfire & damnation messages on broken appliances and scatter them around the yard; however, Beal treats each person he meets with respect and a genuine interest, drawing out their beliefs and relating it to a larger religious experience. The result is a thoughtful reflection on individual faith journeys, as well as an examination of how religious traditions have evolved.
Recommended to anyone with an interest in "outsider" culture, as well as basic philosophy with a religious bent.
Notes and Quotes
* Geopiety: a deep religious devotion to a vision of The Holy Land - not nesc historically or geographically accurate.
* Holy Land USA - "a story-shaped world" - definite beginning & end and to be traversed in a specific order.
* Golgotha Fun Park ?!?!?! (now closed)
* American Evangelical Christianity - seen as very conservative; yet quite liberal in selecting elements of pop culture to spread the gospel (i.e. mini-golf)
* Outsider religion: outsider status provides a unique vision of faith - but is this cause or effect?
* Some displays (World's Largest 10 Commandments) - verge on idolatry/graven images?
* Precious Moments Chapel - all figures except for Jesus are children - equates faith with childhood?
"With Biblical minigolf, then, sacred narrative, the Greatest Story Ever Told, meets one of the most trivial of all American amusements."
"Faith requires one to go further than trust allows."
"To be in the image of God is to be creative like the Creator."
December 9, 2018
Beal, Professor of Religion at Case Western, takes his wife, Clover, a Presbyterian minister, and two children, on a motor home tour. Sacred sites are outsider or aberrant art, mostly conservative Christian, mostly in the American South (VA, FL, KY, NC, AL, MO, GA, plus WA and MD). Scenes include reproductions of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Mini-Golf in Bible land, Noah’s Ark, Golgotha Fun Park, world’s largest Ten Commandments, a Cross Garden, Precious Moments Chapel, a rosary collection, gardens, and grottoes. The Beals start out skeptical of such kitsch, but come to appreciate sincere labors of love. Words and poor photography don’t do places justice. Is prophecy the cause or effect of marginalization? Is creativity always inside the mind of God?
February 10, 2020
What started as a road trip to visit religious landmarks, some beautiful, some strange, turned into a trip into the author's own faith. Since this book was published some of these spots have closed, but most are still around. He writes about how many of these give us the opportunity to visit a "story world", whether it be a biblical recreation or a museum of rosaries. I was most touched by the Ave Maria Grotto in Alabama, and the author's discovery (at Finster's Paradise Gardens) that "to be in the image of God is to be creative like the creator. Creativity itself is the image of God."
I need to go on a road trip.
I need to go on a road trip.
June 30, 2017
Ok, not my typical read.
This book was ok. It is not my typical read, but rather class material. The author was effective in his goal of a thoughtful and reflective summary of many trips to various American Christian roadside attractions. It can make you think, if you allow yourself to be reflective.
This book was ok. It is not my typical read, but rather class material. The author was effective in his goal of a thoughtful and reflective summary of many trips to various American Christian roadside attractions. It can make you think, if you allow yourself to be reflective.
June 30, 2020
I absolutely loved this book! It's a wonderful exploration of folk religion, an informed but not overly sympathetic look at the American evangelical mind (anti-Semitism, sexism, etc and all), and-- perhaps my favorite aspect-- a meditation on the intersection of faith and vulnerability.
December 20, 2023
This is another book I read for a class that was so fun and interesting that I had to read it on my own. Definitely made you think about how different religion is presented across the country. Super cool to learn about all these quirky places.
September 23, 2019
More places to add to my Bucket List. A nice, personalized tour of interesting places and ideas in America. I am glad Neal wrote it and glad I read it.
July 27, 2022
Just finished re-reading this— it holds up beautifully; a great example of religious studies work written accessibly, with great feeling.
May 13, 2013
Many of us have noticed the religious attractions – the Christian kitsch – that exist in so many corners of the country, and Timothy Beal argues that we tend to dismiss these sites too quickly. Behind many of these places is a person who has had a meaningful religious experience, and feels called to share it. What fascinates Beal is the “desire to communicate a very personal, perhaps incommunicable religious experience in such a public, even spectacular way.” (11) He and his family traveled to almost a dozen sites, from Christ-themed mini-golf courses to Precious Moments Inspiration Park, to try and understand the people who created them. Beal combines the stories of these visits with his own philosophical journey, as a Professor of Religion, who was raised Evangelical, and is married to a Presbyterian minister, and has a very complicated relationship with faith.
Not every site comes off well in Beal’s book, though he finds something to like about almost all of them. It ends up being (understandably) hard to be cynical when the creators of most sites are so eager to share their stories. A man attempting to rebuild Noah’s Ark to exact specifications, and a man who has created a massive garden of repentance-themed crosses, both really believe themselves to be obeying God’s direct orders. Beal expects them to be dogmatic and off-putting, but they are welcoming and appear to be operating out of genuine concern for lost souls. Precious Moments Park, filled with hordes of those treacly little figures, turns out to be centered on a chapel dedicated to the late son of the creator of the brand. He was able to deal with his grief at least in part through the paintings and statues he made for the park. Many guests experiencing similar trauma also report finding comfort there. At a homey little corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where locations from Jesus’ life have been recreated as a sort of domestic pilgrimage site, Beal finds tourists experiencing genuine transcendence. The creators had hoped to build a sacred space that would allow people to experience the divine, and they appear to have succeeded. The only real flop on the tour is the least personal site: the Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando. Though this was also the work primarily of one man’s vision, Beal points out that the agenda behind the park is intentionally obscured. The man who created it intended for it to promote a particular eschatological view, and the park is not up front about this. In addition, it seems overproduced and slick, lacking in humble faith and hospitality.
It is easy to identify with the Beal family as they explore these fascinating little corners of the country. Some of the sites align with the theme of the book a little better than others, however. The mini-golf course seems less a genuine expression of faith and more an attempt to make a buck off of godly parents trying to find a Christian way to entertain their kids. Also, sadly, the book is a little out of date – most of the visits recounted here took place almost a decade ago, and several sites have since closed or are under new management. Beal’s musings on “outsider religion” are, of course, still useful, and I suppose anyone hoping to explore similar territory will find new sites to visit. In the end, Roadside Religion provides real insight into a dimension of faith that “has less to do with belief and more to do with relationship.” (213) Almost all the people Beal visits have opened themselves up to scorn and cynicism in a vulnerable effort to welcome others to their personal worlds of faith. They offer up another interpretation of what it means to be faithful in America.
Not every site comes off well in Beal’s book, though he finds something to like about almost all of them. It ends up being (understandably) hard to be cynical when the creators of most sites are so eager to share their stories. A man attempting to rebuild Noah’s Ark to exact specifications, and a man who has created a massive garden of repentance-themed crosses, both really believe themselves to be obeying God’s direct orders. Beal expects them to be dogmatic and off-putting, but they are welcoming and appear to be operating out of genuine concern for lost souls. Precious Moments Park, filled with hordes of those treacly little figures, turns out to be centered on a chapel dedicated to the late son of the creator of the brand. He was able to deal with his grief at least in part through the paintings and statues he made for the park. Many guests experiencing similar trauma also report finding comfort there. At a homey little corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where locations from Jesus’ life have been recreated as a sort of domestic pilgrimage site, Beal finds tourists experiencing genuine transcendence. The creators had hoped to build a sacred space that would allow people to experience the divine, and they appear to have succeeded. The only real flop on the tour is the least personal site: the Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando. Though this was also the work primarily of one man’s vision, Beal points out that the agenda behind the park is intentionally obscured. The man who created it intended for it to promote a particular eschatological view, and the park is not up front about this. In addition, it seems overproduced and slick, lacking in humble faith and hospitality.
It is easy to identify with the Beal family as they explore these fascinating little corners of the country. Some of the sites align with the theme of the book a little better than others, however. The mini-golf course seems less a genuine expression of faith and more an attempt to make a buck off of godly parents trying to find a Christian way to entertain their kids. Also, sadly, the book is a little out of date – most of the visits recounted here took place almost a decade ago, and several sites have since closed or are under new management. Beal’s musings on “outsider religion” are, of course, still useful, and I suppose anyone hoping to explore similar territory will find new sites to visit. In the end, Roadside Religion provides real insight into a dimension of faith that “has less to do with belief and more to do with relationship.” (213) Almost all the people Beal visits have opened themselves up to scorn and cynicism in a vulnerable effort to welcome others to their personal worlds of faith. They offer up another interpretation of what it means to be faithful in America.
January 10, 2008
Timothy Beal is a religion professor at a university in Ohio; one summer he packed up his family in an RV and toodled around the country looking at kitschy religious theme parks, and the like, to do an analysis. Roadside Religion is the result of this - and several other - forays into this strange world. Among the places he visits are The Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Precious Moments Chapel in Missouri, the world’s largest rosary collection, Noah’s Ark Being Rebuilt in Maryland, and Cross Garden in Alabama.
Beal treats all of the locations with a gentle honesty, showing them for what they really are. I was most impressed with his treatment of Cross Garden, which is a truly bizarre place; Beal sees the attitudes and desires behind the place rather than just what is on the surface. His interesting thoughts on spirituality in general are a good addition to what otherwise could simply be a “road trip” book.
Beal treats all of the locations with a gentle honesty, showing them for what they really are. I was most impressed with his treatment of Cross Garden, which is a truly bizarre place; Beal sees the attitudes and desires behind the place rather than just what is on the surface. His interesting thoughts on spirituality in general are a good addition to what otherwise could simply be a “road trip” book.
January 19, 2011
This book tours a uniquely American industry: religious roadside amusements. The findings range from the endearing (Jesus-themed mini-golf), to the crassly commercial (a multimillion dollar Biblical theme park), to the downright weird (a church dedicated to the sappy “Precious Moments” figurines).
December 9, 2011
Very respectful treatment of this topic. I was disappointed that I'd never encountered Cross Gardens, given I lived in Prattville, AL for 2 years. My only complaint is that I wish the book had been longer and covered more sites; this is a testament to my enjoyment of it.
August 8, 2008
Hilarious, and unexpectedly moving.
September 13, 2008
I came across this while working on my thesis. I had no idea these places existed: The Golgotha Fun Park, Holy Land USA, and a rebuilding of Noah's Ark. Crazy, cool.
March 26, 2011
A touching and endearing exploration of the "awesome absurdity of faith", as manifested in roadside religious attractions.
February 20, 2014
Makes me want to get a motor home and drive. But I doubt I'd find the courage to discover all that Beal did here. The armchair travels worked well for me.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews