To: alt.magick.tyagi,talk.religion.newage,talk.religion.misc,alt.support.ex-cult,alt.satanism
From: boboroshi@satanservice.org (SOD of CoE)
Subject: RVW: "Raising the Devil..."
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 19:03:06 GMT
50010218 Vom Hail Satan!
REVIEW OF: "Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media"
author: Bill Ellis
publisher: University of Kentucky Press
year: 2000
reviewer: boboroshi@satanservice.org (c) 2001. all rights reserved.
===============================================================
a Christian folklorist's attempt to identify the sources of data
surrounding the images of the Devil and Satanism within contemporary
culture and specific subcultures. of moderate reliability (repeats
LaVey's lies about "Rosemary's Baby" film as fact despite also quoting
Polanski as denying having done any research for the film, for example).
would better be titled "Rumor Panics, Folkloric Analyses, and the
Satanism Scare of Late 20th Century Britain and the United States".
incomplete coverage: no mention of sources like Huysmans or the
potential that the Taxil-Huysmans team might influence the opinions
of sources quoted (such as British criminologist Henry T.F. Rhodes
and the occultist Manly P. Hall). no mention of Faust folklore, the
folklore surrounding the number 666, Michael Aquino and the Presidio
incident, Matamoros, or any serious background on Spiritualism.
would probably be assisted by incorporating the data in Waite's
"Devil Worship in France", cited in text but not in bibliography.
perpetuates the *valuable* distinction between "folklore *of*
witchcraft and Satanism (i.e., what witches and Satanists *do*
believe)" and "folklore *about* witches and Satanists (what [any
others] *think* witches and Satanists believe)."
the following quote lays out the basics of the text:
This book will examine the process by which this craze was
launched by looking closely at the role the Devil and Satanism
played in three of its constitutive elements -- Anglo-American
magical folklore, the practice of exorcism, and the subversion
myths that had previously scapegoated cultural outsiders such
as Jews and Communists. Then we will examine two processes:
the appearance of "confessing Satanists," influential works that
claimed to portray an insider's view of cults, and the rumor
panics over graveyard desecrations and cattle mutilatios. These
helped fuse and communicate THE IMAGE OF SATANISM to a mass
public. [p. xviii; my emphasis -- boboroshi]
as Jeffrey Burton Russell treated the CONCEPT of Satan, rather
than what that entity might actually be, so Ellis treats the IMAGE
of Satanism, rather than what that phenomenon might actually be
(compare Lyons, of whom Ellis makes use regarding Satanism,
or better J. Gordon Melton, whose academic status compares
favorably with that of the author, but whose scholarship on
Satanism itself Ellis never cites, preferring to let him speak in
defense of Wicca instead).
OVERALL: for the limited and actual subject, it seems an intriguing
study of sociology, folklore, and blood libel, worthy of acquisition
by those interested in martyrdom, panic, scare, and witch-hunt
phenomena, but of little value for those who wish to learn about
Satanism as practiced by many individuals or groups. variable data
on LaVey and Crowley also appears, including the amusing notion
that the latter's definition of magick might be taken as "normative"!
=====================================================================
[additional material from the dust-jacket, back-flap:
Bill Ellis -- associate professor of English and American
studies at Penn State Hazleton, has served as president
of the International Society for Contemporary Legend
Research and the American Folklore Society's Folk Narrative
Section. He is an active member of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America.
added 2005]
=====================================================================
(c) boboroshi@satanservice.org 2001, 2005
I received a copy of the book for providing this review. thanks.
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