عنوان

The Devil is Red:

Number

LA122770

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

The Devil is Red:

General Material Designation

[Article]

Other Title Information

Socialist Satanism in the Nineteenth Century

First Statement of Responsibility

Per Faxneld

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill

Text of Note

During the nineteenth century, socialists all over the Western world employed Satan as a symbol of the workers' emancipation from capitalist tyranny and the toppling of the Christian Church, which they perceived as a protector of this oppressive system. Starting with the English Romantics at the end of the eighteenth century, European radicals developed a discourse of symbolic Satanism, which was put to use by major names in socialism like Godwin, Proudhon, and Bakunin. This shock tactic became especially widespread in turn-of-the-century Sweden, and accordingly the article focuses on the many examples of explicit socialist Satanism in that country. They are contextualized by showing the parallels to, among other things, use of Lucifer as a positive symbol in the realm of alternative spirituality, specifically the Theosophical Society. A number of reasons for why Satan gained such popularity among socialists are suggested, and the sometimes blurry line separating the rhetoric of symbolic Satanism from actual religious writing is scrutinized. During the nineteenth century, socialists all over the Western world employed Satan as a symbol of the workers' emancipation from capitalist tyranny and the toppling of the Christian Church, which they perceived as a protector of this oppressive system. Starting with the English Romantics at the end of the eighteenth century, European radicals developed a discourse of symbolic Satanism, which was put to use by major names in socialism like Godwin, Proudhon, and Bakunin. This shock tactic became especially widespread in turn-of-the-century Sweden, and accordingly the article focuses on the many examples of explicit socialist Satanism in that country. They are contextualized by showing the parallels to, among other things, use of Lucifer as a positive symbol in the realm of alternative spirituality, specifically the Theosophical Society. A number of reasons for why Satan gained such popularity among socialists are suggested, and the sometimes blurry line separating the rhetoric of symbolic Satanism from actual religious writing is scrutinized.

Date of Publication

2013

Physical description

528-558

Title

Numen

Volume Number

60/5-6

International Standard Serial Number

1568-5276

Subject Term

anarchism

Subject Term

Romanticism

Subject Term

Satanism

Subject Term

socialism

Subject Term

Sweden

Per Faxneld

Call Number

10.1163/15685276-12341294

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y