Pedagogy of the Beast: Bestiaries as Student Centered Learning Projects

In religious history, texts known as bestiaries taught readers about strange beasts and their connection to God’s revelation in nature. These ancient texts became the artifact that helped develop pedagogy of the beast used in a new class teaching the relationship between religion and the monstrous. In the spring of 2022, a private Midwestern university launched a successful new religion course that explored the intersection of monsters, religion, and popular culture. Part of the success was due to the use of project-based learning, scaffolding, and student-centered learning to craft a monstrous midterm around the artifact of the bestiary. This paper gives an in-depth explanation of how to use the “pedagogy of the beast,” offers a qualitative analysis of student experiences (with pictures), and concludes with suggestions as to how the bestiary project might be improved for courses exploring religion and the monstrous.