Timothy K. Beal is Florence Harkness Professor of Religion and director of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University. He has published eight books, including Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith (Beacon, 2005), which was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and one of Publishers Weekly’s ten Best Religion Books of 2005; Religion and Its Monsters (Routledge, 2002), which was a Reviews in Religion and Theology Editor’s Choice; and The Book of Hiding: Gender, Ethnicity, and Annihilation in Esther (Routledge, 2007). He has published essays on religion and American culture for The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, and The Cleveland Plain Dealer. He has been featured on national radio shows including NPR’s All Things Considered and The Bob Edwards Show. He is co-editor, with Tod Linafelt of the book series Afterlives of the Bible with the University of Chicago Press.

ALSO  VISIT

timothybeal.com

theendofthewordasweknowit.com

TEACHING

For me, teaching is about creating a space in which a unique and genuinely collegial intellectual community can take shape. I strive to treat every student as a colleague with something unique to offer the class. I believe that one of the highest goals of education should be to learn to ask good questions, and that the best questions are often those that survive all their answers. Education is a lifelong affair. As Marian Wright Edelman puts it, “Education is not just about making a living. It’s about making a life.”

I teach courses in biblical literature, cultural history of the Bible, theory and methodology for religious studies, and in thematic areas of broad, comparative interest. My courses include: Introduction to the Study of Religion; History and Literature of Ancient Israel; New Testament and Early Christianity; Ritual; Religion and Visual Culture; Religion and Ecology; and Religion and Horror. In a recent senior seminar, my students and I planned and conducted a research project called The Case Pluralism Project, which began mapping the religious landscape of the undergraduate student body at Case in order to better understand how religion impacts undergraduate education and life on campus. I also teach in the SAGES core curriculum, including "What Is Soul?" (team-taught with Louis B. Rice in the School of Medicine), which explores the cultural history of soul, from Moses, Socrates, and the Buddha to Ray Charles, soul food, and the hospital bed.

RESEARCH AND WRITING

Writing is probably the closest thing to a spiritual discipline in my life. Writing, including the research that it necessarily involves, is a generative process. In my experience, writing doesn’t simply give expression my ideas; it invents and forms them. For a fuller list of my publications, follow the links to TIM'S CV and TIM'S BOOKS.

HOME AND FAMILY

I was born in Hood River, Oregon, and grew up in Alaska (about twenty miles outside Anchorage, near Flat Top Mountain). I spent my youth hiking and hunting and messing around in the forests and foothills of the Chugach Mountains. I feel deeply connected to Alaska, although I rarely have the opportunity to visit. My family has five acres on a small pond called Loon Lake in a wilderness area about 60 miles south of the Alaska Mountain Range, near Talkeetna. I dream of building a cabin there one day.

I am married to Clover Reuter Beal, a Presbyterian minister at Forest Hill Church in Cleveland Heights. Clover and I met during college in Seattle (in a philosophy of religion course). I call Clover a Presbyterian shaman.

Clover and I live in Shaker Heights, Ohio with our two kids, Sophie (born 1991) and Seth (born 1994). We love to travel together. In fact, my Roadside Religion book project began with a family road trip -- a travel seminar, let's call it -- through the Bible Belt in a 29-foot rented motorhome. Learn more about that by following the MEDIA link above.

Copyright © Timothy K. Beal, Case Western Reserve University. All Rights Reserved.