Diabolical Authority: Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible and the Satanist "Tradition"
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2002.7.3733Abstract
The status of The Satanic Bible as an authoritative scripture-or, perhaps more accurately, as a kind of quasi-scripture-within the Satanic subculture was initially brought to my attention during my first face-to-face encounter with Satanists in the Spring of 2000. Via the internet, I had found a small Satanist group in Portage, Wisconsin, which was about an hour south of where I resided at the time. This group, the Temple of Lylyth, distinguishes itself from Anton LaVey's brand of Satanism chiefly by its emphasis on feminine nature of the Dark Power. I arranged to meet with them in Portage on a Friday evening in connection with a research project on which I was working at the time. Over the course of our conversation, the founder and then leader of the group mentioned that on Friday evenings he was usually downtown where a small group of fervent Christians regularly set up what might be called a "preaching station" to spread the Gospel. This young fellow (he was nineteen at the time) would confront them as a practicing Satanist. He always carried a copy of The Satanic Bible with him, not just so he could quote some of accusations LaVey leveled against Christianity, but also so he could correct anything these evangelists might say about Satanism by citing an authoritative source. I'm sure this is something of a caricature, but I was left with the impression of dueling religionists, Christians hurling Bible verses at my informant as he matched blow for blow with quotes from The Satanic Bible. This experience led me to pay attention whenever other Satanists mentioned The Satanic Bible.References
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Chryssides, George D. "Is God a Space Alien? The Cosmology of the Raelian Church." Culture and Cosmos 4:1 Spring/Summer 2000.
----------------. "Sycophants Unite!" http://www.churchofsatan.com/home.html
"The Church of Satan Information Pack" http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/cosinfopack.pdf
"Church of Satan Youth Communique" http://www.churchofsatan.com/home.html
Ellis, Bill. Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2000.
Flowers, Stephen E., Lords of the Left Hand Path. Smithville, Texas: Runa-Raven Press, 1997.
Holmes, Ernest. The Science of Mind. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, [1926]1944.
LaVey, Anton Szandor. The Satanic Bible. New York: Avon, 1969
Lewis, James R. "Who Serves Satan? A Demographic and Ideological Profile." Marburg Journal of Religious Studies 6:2. 2001. [Link]
Moody, Edward J."Magical Therapy: An Anthropological Investigation of Contemporary Satanism." In Irving I. Zaretsky and Mark P. Leone, eds. Religious Movements in Contemporary
America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974.
Moynihan, Michael and Didrik Soderlind. Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground. Venice, CA: Feral House, 1998.
Necchi, Joe. "The Xloptuny Curse." http://www.churchofsatan.org/xloptuny.html.
Nemo. "Recognizing Pseudo-Satanism" http://www.churchofsatan.com/home.html
-------------. "Satanism and Objectivism." http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/SatObj.html
-------------. "Satanism Needs an Enema!" http://www.churchofsatan.com/home.html
Petersen, Jesper Aagard. "Binary Satanism: Being Dark and Secretive in a Prismatic Digital World." Unpublished paper.
Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged. New York: Random House, 1957.
Redbeard, Ragnar. Might is Right; or, The Survival of the Fittest. London: W.J. Robbins, 5 th ed.1910. [Rpt. of 1896]
Richardson, James, Joel Best and David G. Bromley. The Satanism Scare. NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991.
"Satanic Bunco Sheet." http://www.churchofsatan.com/home.html
Schreck, Zeena, and Nikolas Schreck. "Anton LaVey: Legend and Reality." 1998.
http://www.churchofsatan.org/aslv.html
Sentes, Bryan, and Susan Palmer. "Presumed Immanent: the Raelians, UFO Religions, and the Postmodern Condition." Novo Religio
Smith, George C. "The Hidden Source of the Satanic Philosophy." Originally published in The Scroll of Set, June 1987. Reprinted as Appendix 11 in Aquino 1999.
Trull, D. "Fortean Slips: Death of a Devil's Advocate."
Weber, Max. Basic Concepts in Sociology. H. P. Secher (trans). New York: Philosophical Library, 1962.
Wolfe, Burton H. The Devil's Avenger: A Biography of Anton Szandor LaVey. New York: Pyramid Books, 1974.
Wright, Lawrence. "Sympathy for the Devil." Rolling Stone September 5, 1991.
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2015-08-24
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Lewis, J. R. (2015). Diabolical Authority: Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible and the Satanist "Tradition". Marburg Journal of Religion, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2002.7.3733
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