Sources, Sects, and Scripture: The Book of Satan in The Satanic Bible (2024)

The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity

Per Faxneld (ed.), Jesper Aa. Petersen (ed.)

Published:

2012

Online ISBN:

9780199979646

Print ISBN:

9780199779239

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The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity

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Eugene V. Gallagher

Eugene V. Gallagher

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Oxford Academic

Pages

103–122

  • Published:

    November 2012

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Gallagher, Eugene V., 'Sources, Sects, and Scripture: The Book of Satan in The Satanic Bible', in Per Faxneld, and Jesper Aa. Petersen (eds), The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity (2012; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Jan. 2013), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199779239.003.0005, accessed 2 Oct. 2024.

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Abstract

This chapter examines the contexts of production and reception related to the most popular and recognized book on Satanism today, Anton LaVey's Satanic Bible. Through a thorough compositional analysis of the first part, called The Book of Satan, the chapter redefines both The Satanic Bible and the category of scripture to explain the form and function of LaVey's book. First, a particular attention is given the appropriations, exclusions, and revisions undertaken by LaVey to compose the work. This analysis is subsequently used to discuss both satanic and scholarly engagements with The Satanic Bible as well as the specific schismatic claims to authority furthered by criticizing LaVey's strategy of appropriation. As such, the analysis questions both the scholarly (mis-)uses of the term scripture and the various intentions of charging LaVey with plagiarism, hence opening up modern Satanism to broader comparative studies.

Keywords: Satanism, Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible, The Book of Satan, redaction criticism, scripture, Michael A. Aquino, Might Is Right

Subject

History of Religion East Asian Religions Sociology and Anthropology of Religion Alternative Belief Systems

Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online

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