Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
In the 1980s, America was gripped by widespread panics about Satanic cults. Conspiracy theories abounded about groups who were allegedly abusing children in day-care centers, impregnating girls for infant sacrifice, brainwashing adults, and even controlling the highest levels of government. As historian of religions David Frankfurter listened to these sinister theories, it occurred to him how strikingly similar they were to those that swept parts of the early Christian world, early modern Europe, and postcolonial Africa. He began to investigate the social and psychological patterns that give rise to these myths. Thus was born Evil Incarnate, a riveting analysis of the mythology of evilconspiracy.
The first work to provide an in-depth analysis of the topic, the book uses anthropology, the history of religion, sociology, and psychoanalytic theory, to answer the questions "What causes people collectively to envision evil and seek to exterminate it?" and "Why does the representation of evil recur in such typical patterns?"
Frankfurter guides the reader through such diverse subjects as witch-hunting, the origins of demonology, cannibalism, and the rumors of Jewish ritual murder, demonstrating how societies have long expanded upon their fears of such atrocities to address a collective anxiety. Thus, he maintains, panics over modern-day infant sacrifice are really not so different from rumors about early Christians engaging in infant feasts during the second and third centuries in Rome.
In Evil Incarnate, Frankfurter deepens historical awareness that stories of Satanic atrocities are both inventions of the mind and perennial phenomena, not authentic criminal events. True evil, as he so artfully demonstrates, is not something organized and corrupting, but rather a social construction that inspires people to brutal acts in the name of moral order.
Read more from David Frankfurter
Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology
Related to Evil Incarnate
Related ebooks
The Devil: A New Biography Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Company of Demons: Unnatural Beings, Love, and Identity in the Italian Renaissance Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Malleus Maleficarum Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGiving the Devil His Due: Satan and Cinema Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSatanism and Demonology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Satanica Sexualis: An Encyclopedia Of Sex And The Devil Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Lucid View: Investigations in Occultism, Ufology & Paranoid Awareness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sensible Ecstasy: Mysticism, Sexual Difference, and the Demands of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Christianity, Spirituality, Satanism and Mental Disorders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Satanic Epic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love, Sex, Fear, Death: The Inside Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Satan: How God's Executioner Became the Enemy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Go to Hell: A Heated History of the Underworld Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHere's to My Sweet Satan: How the Occult Haunted Music, Movies and Pop Culture, 1966-1980 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Devil Within: Possession & Exorcism in the Christian West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark History of the Occult Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In Bondage to Evil: A Psycho-Spiritual Understanding of Possession Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHell and Its Rivals: Death and Retribution among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Early Middle Ages Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Vampire: His Kith and Kin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demonism Verified and Analyzed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLucifer, Leviathan, Lilith, and other Mysterious Creatures of the Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From the Bodies of the Gods: Psychoactive Plants and the Cults of the Dead Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How About Demons?: Possession and Exorcism in the Modern World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Demonolatry: An Account of the Historical Practice of Witchcraft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Stranger: And Other German Vampire Classics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
History (Religion) For You
Lost Books of the Bible: The Rejected Texts, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Enoch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Living: The Classical Mannual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Genesis 6 Conspiracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Early Mormonism and the Magic World View Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paul: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Best Trick Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Boy [Seventy-fifth Anniversary Edition] Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Year with Rumi: Daily Readings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Jubilees Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Severe Mercy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way of the Shaman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Church History in Plain Language, Fifth Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Didache : TEACHING of the TWELVE APOSTLES: Also Includes The Epistle of Barnabas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSimply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/525 Books Every Christian Should Read: A Guide to the Essential Spiritual Classics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hermeticism: How to Apply the Seven Hermetic Principles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Insider's View of Mormon Origins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Church History in Plain Language Workbook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shinto the Kami Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christ Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Evil Incarnate
12 ratings0 reviews