Children of lucifer : the origins of modern religious satanism / Ruben van Luijk.

Author/creator Luijk, Ruben van author.
Format Book
PublicationNew York : Oxford University Press, [2016]
Descriptionxiii, 613 pages ; 24 cm.
Subjects
Satanism--History.

SeriesOxford studies in Western esotericism
Oxford studies in Western esotericism. ^A1344243
Contents Introduction (mostly for academic readers) -- The Christian invention of Satanism -- Intermezzo 1. The eighteenth century: death of Satan? -- The romantic rehabilitation of Satan -- Satan in nineteenth-century counterculture -- Intermezzo 2. Charles Baudelaire: litanies to Satan -- Huysmans and consorts -- Unmasking the synagogue of Satan -- Unmasking the synagogue of Satan: continued and concluded -- Intermezzo 3. Nineteenth-century religious Satanism: fact or fiction? -- Paths into the twentieth century -- Tribulations of the early church -- Intermezzo 4. Adolescent Satanism, metal Satanism, cyber-Satanism -- Conclusion.
Abstract If we are to believe sensationalist media coverage, Satanism is, at its most benign, the purview of people who dress in black, adorn themselves with skull and pentagram paraphernalia, and listen to heavy metal. At its most sinister, its adherents are worshippers of evil incarnate and engage in violent and perverse secret rituals, the details of which mainstream society imagines with a fascination verging on the obscene. Children of Lucifer debunks these facile characterizations by exploring the historical origins of modern Satanism. Ruben van Luijk traces the movement's development from a concept invented by a Christian church eager to demonize its internal and external competitors to a positive (anti- ) religious identity embraced by various groups in the modern West. Van Luijk offers a comprehensive intellectual history of this long and unpredictable trajectory. This story involves Romantic poets, radical anarchists, eccentric esotericists, Decadent writers, and schimastic exorcists, among others, and culiminates in the establishment of the Church of Satan by carnival entertainer Anton Szandor LaVey. Yet it is more than a collection of colorful characters and unlikely historical episodes. The emergence of new attitudes toward Satan proves to be intimately linked to the ideological struggle for emancipation that transformed the West and is epitomized by the American and French Revolutions. It is also closely connected to secularization, that other exceptional historical process which saw Western culture spontaneously renounce its traditional gods and enter into a self-imposed state of religious indecision. Children of Lucifer makes the case that the emergence of Satanism presents a shadow history of the evolution of modern civilization as we know it. Offering the most comprehensive account of this history yet written, van Luijk proves that, in the case of Satanism, the facts are much more interesting than the fiction. -- from dust jacket.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in other formElectronic version: Luijk, Ruben van. Children of lucifer. New York : Oxford University Press, 2016 9780190275136
Genre/formHistory.
LCCN 2015044388
ISBN9780190275105 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN0190275103 (cloth : alk. paper)

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks BF1548 .L85 2016 ✔ Available Place Hold