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Focusing on the Gothic comedy Satanic Panic, this article examines how the film uses satire as a liberal reaction to the patriarchal, theocratic agenda of Trumpism, following a notable tradition of Satan adopted as a symbol of countercultural, individualist revolution. I argue that the text's youth-focus, as well as its representation of gender, national identity and economic class, negotiates feminism and competing ideologies of satanism to suitably reflect the opposing strands of the contemporary culture wars. Indeed, the post-truth, paranoiac United States under Trump has seen apocalyptic rhetoric and occult conspiracy-thinking flourish alongside left-wing satanic activism. A sociopolitical climate that draws distinct parallels with the 1980s and 1990s 'Satanic Panic' era and Y2K premillennialism. This work conceptualizes, through close analysis, how the film effectively articulates such postmodern retroactivity – at both a thematic and narrative level – to reflect the gendered, generational divide and troubling legacy of Reaganite neo-liberalism at the heart of the Trump era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unlikely literary success of Dennis Wheatley as an author of occult-themed popular fiction has had an integral and lasting impact on British popular ideas about Satanism. Writing between the 1930s and the 1970s, Wheatley's "Black Magic Stories" pieced together a culturally specific demonology through which he filtered his often reactionary political and social views in the areas of race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion. Wheatley's writings became one of the key conduits via which the traditional mythology of Satanism was disseminated over the course of the twentieth century—particularly in Britain. To highlight Wheatley's cultural significance this article introduces the Wheatley phenomenon and the critical reception of his works. Second, it examines his demonological imaginary by looking at his treatment of a series of themes in his "Black Magic Stories." Third, it interrogates the evidence for Wheatley's sources and his direct involvement in the occult. Finally, it considers the high point of Wheatley's cultural impact between the 1950s and the 1970s, showing some of the avenues by which his writings influenced and shaped the popular image of Satanism which became ubiquitous during this period, and which fed directly into the Satanic Panics of the 1980s and 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how a nontheistic organization called The Satanic Temple (TST) fights for religious freedom for its members, particularly in abortion rights in the US. Ronald Inglehart's secularization framework is employed to conduct a more in-depth analysis of this group's efforts to voice religious freedom for its members, particularly on the abortion issue. Therefore, this study also provides an in-depth examination of TST's strategies regarding the abortion issue. The finding shows that TST has far-reaching implications not only for their efforts against the new abortion law but also for the group's presence amidst the religious majority environment of the US. Furthermore, another finding also reveals that TST's efforts in legal proceedings have yet to be treated fairly. TST has a strong legal argument because TST members interpret their fundamental tenets and have an abortion ritual. However, solid legal opinions are not always sufficient. In response to legal challenges, judges have shown reluctance to evaluate Satanist claims on their merits, preferring to invent procedural criticisms. The ruling did not hinder TST as much as it prevented the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract \nLAY SUMMARY The present study examines several sexual behaviors and attitudes within an international sample (n = 908) of modern Satanists. Sociodemographic and religious data from this sample are provided. Frequencies of Satanists’ engagement in different sexual behaviors are also explored. Furthermore, two aspects of Satanists’ sexual self-concept, sexual self-esteem and sexual anxiety, are assessed along with these variables’ relationships with the strength of Satanists’ group identity and the length of time identifying as a Satanist. Results indicate that the strength of Satanists’ identity impacts both their sexual self-esteem and sexual anxiety. Limitations and directions for future research on Satanism and sexuality are discussed.The purpose of this study is to examine the sexual behaviors and attitudes of modern Satanists. Several different kinds of sexual behaviors were examined. Additionally, the way in which modern Satanists see themselves sexually was assessed. This study also aimed to determine how identifying as a Satanist impacts how Satanists see themselves sexually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a corpus of 40 U.S. news articles and transcribed news videos, I bring together techniques from Critical Discourse Analysis with concepts from cognitive linguistics in analyzing mainstream portrayals of The Satanic Temple (TST), a newer, non-supernaturalist religion. I probe quotation, lexis, and metaphor, and interrogate patterns through the lenses of framing, radial category structure, and Lakoff's Idealized Cognitive Models. I draw form-based parallels between mainstream U.S media portrayals of TST and accounts from the CDA literature of othering portrayals of other marginalized groups, in the U.S. and elsewhere. I submit that many accounts of TST are sensationalist, and propose reclamation as a useful lens for understanding the contemporary Satanist identity. I suggest that research on news values, particularly Bednarek and Caple's concept of Negativity, is a useful avenue for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriating the mythology of Satan as a god of carnality, modern Satanism began as a new religious movement in 1966 with the founding of the Church of Satan. Since then, the religion has experienced numerous schisms and factions, most recently with the formation of The Satanic Temple in 2012. Despite differences in the role of esoteric elements in the religion and other theological or governance reasons for division, Satanists are united in their shared values of sexual liberation and viewing sexuality as a form of authentic self-expression important to their religious beliefs. Conceptualizing Satanism as a non-dominant, sex-positive religion, sex and relationship therapists should understand how Satanists' sexuality can benefit from a religious belief in sexual liberation, but can also be hindered by religious minority stress. The historical development of modern Satanism, the intersections of Satanism and gender, sexual orientation, and relationships, and guidelines for therapists working with Satanist clients are discussed. Modern Satanism is an oft-misunderstood new religious movement. This paper provides an overview of the development of Satanism with special attention to its beliefs and practices relevant to sexuality. Guidelines are presented for sex and relationship therapists on how to appropriately assess and treat Satanist clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flurry of recent interest in what scholars have dubbed 'conspirituality' has focused attention on the intersection between conspiracy theories and the overlapping subcultures of New Age, alternative, and esoteric spirituality. These important insights have also highlighted the extensive histories of cultures of conspiracy which exist within larger religious traditions and the related question of why adherents of specific varieties of religion appear to be highly susceptible to strains of conspiracist thinking. To further illustrate the ubiquity of conspiracy theory in contemporary spirituality, this article offers a historical overview of the intricate culture of conspiracy which has developed in the Roman Catholic Church since at least the French Revolution by outlining its five major permutations: anti-Masonry, antisemitism, anticommunism, anti-Satanism and anti-modernism. This article demonstrates the centrality of conspiracy theories in how a sizeable portion of Roman Catholics have responded to what they perceive as the threatening aspects of modernity as well as the renewed popularity of conspiracy theories within a Roman Catholic spiritual milieu during Pope Francis's papacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that Richard Bedford notices that "Moscovia exhibits an air of distaste for its subject matter," particularly in its "animus towards Russian religion and implied contempt for their ignorance, savagery and barbarity" including examines that John Michael Archer even describes Milton representation of the tsar's power as exhibiting an "almost satanic majesty."

The Church of Satan has used animal tropes recurrently. This article analyzes some of the most important animal representations that Anton LaVey came up with, both for esthetic and ideological purposes. Seizing on the long traditions of Satanism, LaVey embraced goat imagery to a significant degree. He also chose this particular animal for its associations with Pan, and the themes surrounding sexuality. Likewise, he embraced the snake, lion, and panthers. Yet, his choice of animal symbolism went beyond the esthetic. As he established the Church of Satan, LaVey hoped to construct an ideology that would emphasize humans' animalistic aspect. In this endeavor, he also made use of animal imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the rhetorical paradoxes surrounding The Satanic Temple (TST) and its interpretation of 'black mass' rituals. TST's conservative critics have framed the movement as part of an ancient tradition of Satanism while also claiming that its members are not Satanists at all but merely 'trolls' seeking to upset Christians. Catholic critics vehemently opposed TST's attempt to give a public performance of the black mass, but also accused TST of performing the black mass 'incorrectly' when TST explained it would not abuse a consecrated host. This article seeks to interpret these paradoxical responses by framing the black mass as a Christian discourse that TST has knowingly attempted to appropriate and repurpose. Drawing on David Frankfurter's theory of 'rituals of inversion', it argues that stories of black masses function to support certain Christian worldviews and that these worldviews are potentially weakened when their imagined inverted counterparts are appropriated. Thus, what is really at stake in debates surrounding TST's status as a Satanist movement is who can define an important site of discursive power within the Christian imaginaire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Police arrested suspected criminals in a satanic place masquerading as a church ... There is no church there, but there is Satanism ... Those people are not praying for anything, but they have hypnotised abantu [ people ]'. Informed by a decoloniality lens in relation to motifs such as coloniality of power and knowledge and being, I argue that mafiarised religions in South Africa thrive through psychic capture theology. Some emerging religious movements subject their followers to unthinkable practices, which makes outsiders question the way in which both religious leaders and adherents operate outside the conventionally accepted practice of religion, and, instead, indulge in practices characterised by manipulation, corruption and mental destabilisation. I respond to two questions: What are the trajectories of a religion that zombifies, and how can the social pathologies of psychic capture theology be addressed? I respond to these questions with special reference to the Seven Angels Ministry and Penuel Mnguni. I argue that some emerging ministries strive to destroy the psychic ability of adherents, to achieve strategic distance that dehumanises, removes people from the zone of being, and causes them to question their ontological density. I end the article by arguing that there is a need for religion to be regulated, and reintroduced, to challenge religious mafias that thrive through mental destabilisation. In doing so, religion can be reconfigured and have relevance in a postcolonial state, such as South Africa, especially in contexts where the rationale of religious discourses is questionable. Contribution: The article contributes to knowledge in the sense that it calls for religion to be problematised and reconstructed within education and sociological space when it dehumanise and removes people from the zone of being. Through this approach, the article fits with the scope for the journal that calls for interdisciplinary approach to the study within the international contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article delineates a distinction between New Religious Movements (NRMs) and a specific category of youth movement--which we will designate as Youth Identity Movements (YIM)--that is frequently, but not invariably, an NRM. We will argue that this distinction has been missed in large part because of the overlap between the participants in these two movements. We will further point out that, back in the Seventies when new religions emerged as significant social phenomena, it would have been difficult to have distinguished religiously-oriented Youth Identity Movements from other New Religious Movements. It is only now, with the benefit of hindsight and the ageing of NRM memberships, that such movements can be brought into focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rumours may influence health-related behaviours, including the uptake of and adherence to HIV prevention products. This study assessed the safety and effectiveness of a vaginal ring delivering the antiretroviral dapivirine for HIV prevention in Africa. We explored negative rumours about study participation and the vaginal ring amongst study participants and their communities in Malawi, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In total 214 women participated in either single or serial in-depth interviews, or a focus group discussion. Three key findings emerged in the data. Firstly, rumours reflected fears concerning the ring and trial participation. Given the historical-political context of the countries in which the trial was conducted, the ring's investigational nature and its foreign origin, ring use was rumoured to cause negative health outcomes such as cancer and infertility and to be associated with practices such as witchcraft or Satanism. The salience of these rumours varied by country. Secondly, rumours reportedly affected participants' adherence to the ring, and other women's willingness to participate in the study. Finally, participants reported that participant engagement activities helped address rumours, resulting in enhanced trust and rapport between staff and participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satanism has baffled many historians and cultural commentators. Who in their right mind would ever worship Satan, the representation of absolute evil? When in the 1980s, there was an alleged epidemic of Satanic Ritual Abuse in the United States, mental health professionals were pressured to approach this phenomenon from a clinical perspective. In this article, we consider the way some diagnostic criteria laid out in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), could (and could not) be applied to some historical and contemporary aspects of Satanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its secular aspirations, the American legal system is permeated by Christian and other religious ideas. One of the religious ideas that frequently appears in recent American law is the devil--the unholy antithesis of all that is good in the world. Called by many names, such as Satan, Lucifer, or the Antichrist, the devil is no stranger to the United States court system. The devil arises from the hot depths primarily in five contexts: (1) as a source of injury to reputation in defamation cases; (2) as a prejudicial invocation made during criminal trials to secure conviction, harshen sentences, or discredit witnesses; (3) as a symptom of mental illness or delusion severe enough to qualify criminal defendants for insanity pleas and incapacitate decedents in probate; (4) as a source of religious conflict between inmates and their wardens; and, sometimes (5) as a party to litigation. This Article broadly surveys each of these five contexts, exploring how courts have adjudicated recent disputes that involve accusations or admissions of Satanism and associated rituals. Readers will learn how American courts have dealt with religious ideas that many people find distasteful, dangerous, or downright abhorrent. So far, no grand unifying theme or theory is evident, so hopefully this survey will be a springboard for further, more focused research and argument as to how the American legal system should handle disputes that implicate the "archvillain of world culture.". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the discursive and narrative intersections between two moral panics that appeared in the white South African press in the last years of apartheid: the first around the claimed danger posed by white male homosexuals, the second around the alleged incursion of a criminal cult of white Satanists. This connection was sometimes implicit, when the rhetoric attached to one was repeated with reference to the other, and sometimes explicit, when journalists and moral entrepreneurs conflated the two in public dialogue. Both Satanists and gay white men were characterized as indulging in abnormal practices that were dangerous to the health of the nation, using a long-standing colonial metaphor of sanitation and hygiene. I argue that fears of homosexuality and beliefs in Satanism operated as social control measures for disciplining potentially unruly groups whose sexual or personal practices were not admissible within apartheid's injunctions on homogenous conformity among whites. The connection between homosexuality and Satanism, like the connection between homosexuality and communism, served to pathologize whites whose disobedient bodies and beliefs were considered treacherous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the development and ideology of The Satanic Temple, against the background of current American politics. The Satanic Temple is a recent addition to the Satanic milieu, and is positioned here as a form of "rationalist" Satanism that draws on the figure of Satan as a symbol of rebellion. The discussion follows the emergence of The Satanic Temple and its introduction to the mainstream media around 2012, the influences of esoteric, feminist, and secularist ideas on the group, and its present manifestation as a politically engaged "occulture." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The good and evil forces have been considered as the two magnets of human life. By establishing civilizations and cultures, the advent of opposite forces in the human being life paved the way for proposing various ideas and opinions, particularly ideas on the philosophy of creation and existence of a creator and worshipping the creator. Since human being is a two-dimensional creature (spiritual and physical), he needs for worshiping as one of his divine nature's requirements. Hence he sought a creator to worship because of his nature. Worship in its proper form is praising of the only Lord. However, in case of inaccessibility to divine teachings and religions or in the case of noncompliance with these teachings and thoughts, its disgrace form is appeared in the shape of tendency toward worshipping the assumed gods or appearance of Satanism; there is a tendency to exonerating and probably sanctification of the Satan in Sufism that is a Islamic group with some teachings rooted in other groups ideas and rituals. We see this tendency in some of the Sufism works. Einolgozat Hamadani is in the rank of the Sufis that in spite of belief in Islam and monotheism and adherence of Islamic consideration of the Satan. He sometimes has a vision accompanied by exonerating and sanctification on the Satan and writes incoherently about the Satan according to the necessities of the Sufism atmosphere. Due to highlighting this tendency in some of his works and likelihood of misinterpretation on Satanism, this article tries to respond the following questions: a-What are the similarities and difference between the Einolgozat opinions on the Satan and the Satanism viewpoints from the roots, criteria for evaluation of the place of Satan and type of beliefs? b-How Einolgozat and Satanists justify the place of the Satan in the world and his relationship with God and man? The obeisance resulted from fear or worshipping the Satan was common since beginning of human life in different shapes; such as worshipping jinn among the Arabs and worshipping of the evil souls or Satan in other parts of the world including India, Tibet and Mongolia (Noss, 2011: 224). The discoveries in South America depict that some primary tribes worshipped the Satan. Animism is another aspect of Satanism among primitive tribes (Noss, 2011:20). Dualism is one of the roots of Satanism. The Zoroastrian texts are ambiguous on the responsibility of Ahouramazda in creating the evil soul and it is unknown that how the evil soul has been created with Ahouramazada since beginning of creation or it has been created later (Noss, 2010: 454). In Islamic viewpoint, Satan was created by the God and it is not an independent force before the God. Einolgozat considers the Satan as manifestation of the trait of misguide of the God (Hamadani, 2008: 232; ibid: 227). Ambiguity in Zoroastrian teachings provided a context for advent of trinity ideology and constituting groups such as Genism, Yazidieh and Dorzovieh that the traces of Satanism can be found in them. Post-medieval Satanism has a direct relationship with sorcery, so that it is assigned to the Satan and it is also influenced by the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Babylon beliefs and also affected by the people with ancient civilization who tended toward sorcery. Thus, Satanism was publicized after this period due belief in sorcery. The traces of assigning sorcery to the Satan can be found in Einolgozat speeches. However, he considers this issue from different perspective as a result of mystical contemplation of the story of Adam and Eve. It means that the relationship between Adam and prohibited fruit was rooted in goodness and the Satan brought hardship and defects (Hamadani, 2008:313). Satanism is considered as originated from Kabbalah that is a combination of non-Jewish groups' beliefs and ideas, but it distances from the Jewish mysticism. Tendency toward sorcery and mixing with non-Jewish mysticism caused Kabbalah to lose its spiritual aspect and move to materiality and superstitions realm gradually. Kabbalah moved the medieval man toward Satanism for gradual combining with forbidden heresy. The contemporary Satanism mostly denies existence of the Satan as the agent of misleading and loses this place as the human satanic aspect. In Einolgozat opinion, where he defeats the Satan, there is a distinction between the human being and the Satan and the latter gains real entity in this regard (Hamadani, 2008). Although, his defense of the Satan is similar to the Satanism ideals somehow, but it is not meant defeating the ideas and beliefs that lead to Satanism; since the place of the God as the only Lord and creator of the universe is still highlighted; the Sufis who defeat the Satan consider him as unique. In Satanists opinions, the Satan, as the root of any evil conduct, does not deny the God unity; the ancient Satanists considered the God as the only creator of goodness and they did not accept his intervention in evil conducts. In contemporary Satanists opinion, the Satan succeeds the God. Therefore, Einolgozat introduces the Satan as in charge of conducting the divine orders emphasizing the supreme legitimacy of the God and they do not accept servitude of the Satan (Hamadani, 2008, v.3:322). In conclusion, it can be concluded that a)The opinions of Einolgozat such as considering wrongdoing as the will of God, sanctification of the Satan, believing in his beneficence in inviting Adam toward the forbidden tree and etc. are influenced by Jewish ideas. b) Defeating the Satan approximates Einolgozat opinions to the Gnostic beliefs. c) Considering the outstanding place for the Satan by Einolgozat is due to his closeness and loving of the God inthe divine court, which it is not being in contrary to the God. The valuation of the Satan among the Satanists is the consequence of proud and disobedience before the God. d) There is a duality on the issue of the Satan in Einolgozat works; first the accursed Satan appears and then he becomes the loser lover; since Einolgozat speaks in normal condition, so the Satan is normal for him, when he is placed in paradoxical condition, the Satan is appeared differently and exalted. e) In his viewpoint, Satanism is blamed since divinity only belongs to the God and the Satan is His creature and he is under His will and the Satan only overcomes on the misled people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The church burnings wave of the early 1990s in Norway, connected with the emerging black metal subculture of the time, is often associated with Satanism, and the burnings are sometimes labeled as "Satanic terrorism." Instead, the text argues that some arsons may be rather seen as Pagan terrorism, since some of the leading figures in the early Norwegian black metal subculture (especially Varg Vikernes) have indicated that their acts were inspired by their own personal versions of Paganism. These church-burners have described themselves as the successors of the Vikings of old and as "Pagan warriors" continuing an age-long war against Christianity and its culture. Using Mark Juergensmeyer's terms we can understand such actions against Christianity as a type of cosmic war, employing public performances with high shock value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 2011, a young South African woman named Kirsty Theologo was set on fire and left for dead by a group of her high school contemporaries in Linmeyer, Johannesburg. The killing was defined as a “Satanist murder,” leading to media, judicial, and religious interventions aimed at countering the apparent Satanic threat. This article examines press material surrounding Kirsty Theologo’s death and the subsequent arrest and trial of her killers. It argues that the ongoing moral panic around Satanism in contemporary South Africa has obscured the often gendered nature of so-called satanic violence, showing the way in which the murder was instead placed within a familiar framework of Satanic panic in an act of collective displacement that elided the structural and historical contexts of acts of extreme violence perpetrated by young South African men on the bodies of young South African women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines various circulations of Hollywood productions in Iran and the ways in which audiences, critics, cultural administrators, and activists relate to them. I am particularly concerned with what I call "Hollywood cosmopolitanisms," forms of receptivity to religious and cultural others as mediated by the U.S. film industry. Rather than dividing attitudes toward Hollywood in terms of openness and refusal, or cosmopolitanism and counter-cosmopolitanism, I suggest that we attend to different modes of openness: those that are overtly acknowledged, those that are concealed, and those that pass altogether unrecognized but make their mark in the form of "occult resonance." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scholarly article investigates different levels of appropriation of new-age spirituality in three subcultural contexts. The research focuses on the period of changes from state socialism to liberal democracy in Czechoslovakia. The three subcultural contexts in question are those of black metal scene around Prague-based band Törr, "underground" dissident subcultural formations and a peculiar personality of Vincent Venera and his hardcore-experimental musical band Saint Vincent. Three different strategies of using new-age spirituality are examined with the help of hypothesis of (sub)cultural transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today medical research funded by resourceful commercial companies and philanthropic organizations increasingly takes place in much less resourceful settings across the globe. Recent academic studies of this trend have observed how global inequalities have shaped the movements of this research, and how human subjects who make their blood and bodies available are at risk of exploitation. In Lusaka, people expressed their fears of being used by transnational medical research projects in various idioms of concern. While such concerns were always latent, people were generally eager to join the projects. Concerns were often backgrounded in favor of pragmatic attention to--and active creation of--possibilities that might stretch well beyond the purpose and time limit of individual research projects. The article illuminates how intimately the ambiguities and possible scenarios of exploitation inherent in transnational medical research projects are intertwined with scenarios of possibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including activist Malcolm X and the possibility that he had same-sex relationships, the panic over devil-worshiping Satanic pedophiles from 1970-2000, and the history of Rocky Mountain Sheep.

The first four years of P. W. Botha's premiership in apartheid South Africa were plagued by intra-party politicking, renewed anti-apartheid resistance, economic instability, and Satan. Between 1978 and 1982, the heavy political rhetoric of 'total onslaught' inflected perceived 'moral onslaught' in a virulent moral panic over Satanism in white, and particularly Afrikaner, South Africa. With attention to its discursive and socio-political context, this paper seeks to explore the emergence of this distinct satanic moral panic in white South African history, arguing that it reflects the intense political and moral ambiguity of white society as the edifices of apartheid began to fracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initially formulated in the 1970s when large numbers of former counterculturists were joining alternative religions, the youth-crisis model of conversion posited that new recruits were predominantly young people whose involvement could be explained as a function of their youth (e.g., as an adolescent developmental crisis). The present study presents statistics on recruits to seven different contemporary new religions that fundamentally challenge this item of conventional wisdom. Six out of seven data sets also embody a striking pattern of gradually increasing age across time for new converts. In addition to uncovering the growing age-at-recruitment pattern -- which I designate the E-correlation -- I argue that: (1) With the exception of efforts to understand true youth movements such as Internet Satanism, attempts to interpret conversions to contemporary emergent religions as being a function of the imputed youthfulness of recruits is no longer in touch with the reality on the ground. (2) The persistence of the characterization of converts as youthful reflects a failure to build a strong empirical base for such generalizations. Instead, we have relied upon quantitative work carried out over a quarter of a century ago for much of what passes as conventional wisdom in the study of recruitment to alternative religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Were the members of BLACK SABBATH actually worshipers of the devil? Did they actually want to insult Christianity with their new sound? The aim of this paper is to find concrete answers to these questions mentioned. A further aim is to examine from a music analytical point of view the songs of this band (from 1970 to 1973), which have a religious background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the nineteenth century, socialists all over the Western world employed Satan as a symbol of the workers' emancipation from capitalist tyranny and the toppling of the Christian Church, which they perceived as a protector of this oppressive system. Starting with the English Romantics at the end of the eighteenth century, European radicals developed a discourse of symbolic Satanism, which was put to use by major names in socialism like Godwin, Proudhon, and Bakunin. This shock tactic became especially widespread in turn-of-the-century Sweden, and accordingly the article focuses on the many examples of explicit socialist Satanism in that country. They are contextualized by showing the parallels to, among other things, use of Lucifer as a positive symbol in the realm of alternative spirituality, specifically the Theosophical Society. A number of reasons for why Satan gained such popularity among socialists are suggested, and the sometimes blurry line separating the rhetoric of symbolic Satanism from actual religious writing is scrutinized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working from Mark's Passion Narrative, Luke shapes much of his own Passion account according to the headings of the ancient rhetorical technique "common-place," as described in the progymnasmata tradition. The headings of common-place include the opposite, comparison, way of thinking, pity, final headings, and ekphrasis. Luke employs this technique because it is designed to amplify the guilt of those who have committed crimes--in this case, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, especially the Temple authorities, regarding Jesus' execution. Thus Luke paints a positive portrayal of the opposites against which the leaders have offended (Jesus the sage and Jewish hero, and Jesus' service-based kingdom); presents a comparison with the Jewish leaders and four other questionable individual or groups, always to the Jerusalem authorities' disadvantage; attacks the leaders' way of thinking, especially by noting its alignment with Satanic will; makes an appeal to pity to his listeners through Jesus' words and actions after being condemned; paints Jesus' execution as a thorough affront to the final headings of justice and expedience; and not only retains but also augments ekphrastic elements from Mark's Passion. The sum effect is a Passion Narrative which turns the rhetorical screws, amplifying the guilt of Jerusalem's leaders regarding Jesus' death. Luke likely shapes his rhetoric in this way at least in part as a response to the polemical context in which he writes his Gospel, responding especially to problems of theodicy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confounded by the impasse into which literature had been driven by the success of Émile Zola's 'materialist art', J.-K. Huysmans's protagonist, Durtal, is shown, in the opening of Là-bas, imagining the possibility of a nobler form of fiction, one examining both the body and soul of man, and considering 'leurs réactifs', 'leurs conflits'. This essay discusses how - after finding in occultism 'une compensation aux dégoûts de la vie quotidienne' - Huysmans was drawn to alchemy for exemplifying the twin aims of spiritual naturalism, since on the material plane, it transmutes base metal into gold, while on the spiritual plane, it purifies the soul of the artifex through suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is provided in which the editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics related to Southern Africa including public concern about Satansim in South Africa during the 1980s, the Red Line border that segregated Namibia, and organised crime in the Cape Flats, South Africa.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the apartheid system was falling apart, white South Africa was gripped by a powerful moral panic that played out, often hysterically, in the newspapers and magazines of the time. This Satanism scare revolved around fears of a large-scale conspiracy of evil that mostly involved white youth, and that threatened the spiritual health and even the continued existence of white South Africa. Rape, murder, cannibalism and all manner of atrocities involving virgins, animals and babies were commonly said to be part of Satanist rituals occurring across the country. Satanists, South Africans were told, were everywhere, and were as great a threat to their nation as communists. This article uses contemporary press material to examine three isolated yet related incidents within the scare: the Orso murder trial in 1992, when a teenager and her boyfriend claimed satanic possession as the motivation for the murder of her mother; the case of the ‘Rietfontein slasher’, also in 1992, when a group of white schoolgirls was apparently tormented by a supernatural force; and a single article about the alleged possession of a large number of black students in a school in the Atteridgeville township in 1989. It uses these three episodes to reveal how the Satanism scare was violently racialised, how the possibility of magic was both legally and culturally reserved for whites and how many white South Africans' literal fear of the devil fed into recurrent discursive narratives about black pathology and white responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There are moments in history where the imagined threat of satanism and the devil have been engendered by, and exacerbated, widespread social anxiety. This article looks at particular moments in which the ‘satanic peril’ emerged in the white South African imagination as moments of moral panic during which social boundaries were sharpened, patrolled, disputed, and renegotiated through public debate. Between 1989 and 1993, white politicians warned against the unholy trinity of ‘drugs, satanism and communism’, while white newspapers reported rumours of midnight orgies and the ritual consumption of baby flesh by secret satanic covens. From the bizarre to the macabre, the message became one of societal decay and a vulnerable youth. Moral panics betray a host of anxieties in the society, or segment of a society, in which they erupt. This article argues that the moral panic between 1989 and 1993, and the emergence of the ‘satanic peril’, betrays contextually specific anxieties surrounding the loss of power and shifts in class and cultural solidarity as white South Africa's social and geographic borders were transformed. We seek to elucidate the cultural changes in white South Africa during this period by illuminating the social, temporal and geographic boundaries that were disputed and renegotiated through the heightened and shifting discourse on satanism. With context provided by the satanic panics of the late 1970s in South Africa, and the transnational satanism scare of the 1980s, this article concentrates on South Africa's most virulent satanic panic, which occurred between 1989 and 1993. As this article shows, while the decade of the 1980s was marked by successive states of emergency and the deterioration of the edifice of apartheid, it began and ended with widespread alarm that Satan was making a bid for the control of white South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on cases of blasphemy, such as making a pact with the Devil, in early modern Sweden. It mentions cases of making a pact with the Devil, which was looked upon as the ultimate stage of blasphemy and is subject to capital punishment, in the Judicial Inspection in Sweden during the period from 1680 to 1789. Furthermore, several kinds of attempts to make a pact with the Devil, which are almost exclusively and deliberately made by men, are discussed.

Dragon Rouge ist einer der einzigartigsten und interessantesten magischen Orden, die im Laufe der letzten zwanzig Jahren erschienen ist. Er ist auch die erste esoterische Bewegung, die erfolgreich aus Schweden exportiert wurde, sowie jemals der größte Orden des sogenannten Pfad zur linken Hand (Left-Hand Path). In der ersten Hälfte des Artikels werde ich die Geschichte des Ordens ausführlich beschreiben, seine philosophischen Lehren und Praxis besprechen, und Auskunft über seine Demographie sowie die Organisations- und Einweihungstrukturen. In der zweiten Hälfte des Artikels werde ich die Hauptdiskurse besprechen, die der Philosophie, der Praxis und den Strukturen von Dragon Rouge unterliegen: der Vorrang der Natur, die Anziehungskraft der weiblichen Göttlichen und die Diskurse des Individualismus, der Selbstvergötterung, und des Antinomismus die den Pfad zur Linken Hand kennzeichnen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aufbauend auf einer Unterscheidung zwischen "Esoterisierung" und Säkularisierung, behandelt der Artikel Theorien und Praktiken der Magie im modernen religiösen Satanismus. Was wir heute unter selbsternannten Satanisten finden, ist nicht das absolute Böse, sondern Weltanschauungen, die auf eklektischen Aneignungen einer breiten Palette kulturellen Materials gründen, und auf dieser Basis durch Inversion, Säuberung und Kombination positive Identitäten zu errichten und zu verstärken suchen. Diese Identitäten und Weltanschauungen werden wiederum vor allem praktiziert: Durch Magie, schaffen Satanisten Umgebungen zur Selbstverwirklichung, in Form von magischen Rollen, magischen Ritualen, neuen Umwelten, ästhetischen Darbietungen und Kunstwerken. Ich beginne mit einer Untersuchung der dualen Natur magischer Praktiken: Magie wird sowohl als utilitaristisches Werkzeug und als ein Ausdruck des Selbst verstanden, und aus dem Blickwinkel von "Esoterisierung" und Säkularisierung analysiert. Im Anschluss daran gebe ich in diesem Rahmen einen Überblick über typische anleitende Handbücher, Skripte und magische Praktiken innerhalb des "Satanischen Milieus". Es soll gezeigt werden, wie die Versöhnung, das Zelebrieren oder Transzendieren der Gegensätze zwischen "wissenschaftlich" und "esoterisch", authentisch und künstlich, sowie zwischen Selbst und Umwelt, Kernpunkte des gegenwärtigen satanischen Diskurses sind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author analyzes how the communicative structures of religion, science, and art differ from one another, and argues that Dostoevsky's literary work must be interpreted in artistic and not purely religious terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sūūrat al-Najm (Q. 53) has received a comparatively generous amount of scholarly attention for two reasons: firstly, it is said to have been the original literary context of the so-called 'Satanic verses', and secondly, it includes the most elaborate Qur'anic account of a visionary encounter between the Prophet Muḥammad and the Qur'an's divine speaker. While the debate around the Satanic verses has centred on the question of their authenticity, the vision account in Q. 53 is significant for the insights it provides into the Qur'anic understanding of prophecy and because its chronological relationship to another early Qur'anic allusion to a visionary experience of the Messenger, Q. 81:19-23, has not yet been conclusively determined. The present article will revisit both issues in the course of a holistic reading of the entire sura, dealing first with preliminary matters such as the dating of the sura and redactional considerations, then looking at the text's overall structure and its main themes, and finally attempting a microstructural analysis of its most important sections in the light of relevant intertexts, both from within and without the Qur'an. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]