Satanism: A Reader

Abstract While never a numerically significant religion, the idea of Satanism is intimately intertwined with a number of broader issues relevant for the study of religion and culture. The notion of devil-worshipping cults has been a surprisingly stable element of conspiracy theories, historically as well as in the present, and accusations of being in league with demonic forces is a recurring motif in religious polemics and othering. The subject of this volume, the phenomenon of modern self-designed Satanism, shows how such stories and accusations can be appropriated in the service of religious innovation, political protest, or just plain hedonistic self-expression. This volume contains a selection of twenty source texts connected to Satanism. The selection ranges from romantic reinterpretations of Satan in esoteric and anti-clerical contexts of the mid-nineteenth century to counterculture of the 1960s and the political activism of the present day. Furthermore, the texts represent a number of literary genres and types, including poetry and polemical religious tracts as well as ritual instructions and internet FAQs. The source texts are given comprehensive introductions, written by specialists in the field, presenting the reader with a detailed overview of the varieties of Satanism, and the source texts they have given rise to. Chronologically structured, the book can also be read as a succinct historical overview of the development of Satanism, with the closeness to the phenomenon itself that only actual source texts can provide.