Abstract

This thesis is a summary of scholarship on religious Satanism, a critique of claims, approaches, and methodologies within these studies, and a proposal for future considerations within the scholarship. It begins with the early academic mentions of the founding of the Church of Satan, as scholars approach it as evidence of the larger counterculture movement of American society in the 1960s. It is followed by a treatise on the schisms of the Church of Satan in the 1970s, and the scholarly studies surrounding questions of authority and legitimacy. It concludes with a summary and critique of contemporary research on the great variety of religious Satanic groups, and their internal dynamics and social tensions. This thesis summarizes this previous academic research on religious Satanism, discusses the methodological and theoretical approaches to these studies, provides selective commentary and analysis throughout, and finally, encourages further academic discussion and interplay in this emerging field. This thesis engages – concurring, countering, rejecting, and critiquing – with other researchers and their respective work, and as such, it is this dialog that is the primary focus of this study, as it partakes in the discussion of the academic study of religious Satanism.