Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History

Description

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. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments CHAPTER 1: Introduction Sorting Out Resemblances Circumstances for Imagining Evil Evil in the Perspective of This Book CHAPTER 2: An Architecture for Chaos: The Nature and Function of Demonology Thinking with Demons Demonology, Lists, and Temples Beyond the Temple: Demonology among Scribes and Ritual Experts Conclusions CHAPTER 3: Experts in the Identification of Evil Prophets, Exorcists, and the Popular Reception of Demonology Witch-Finders: Charisma in the Discernment of Evil The Possessed as Discerners of Evil Contemporary Forms of Expertise in the Discernment of Evil: Secular and Religious Conclusions: Expertise and the Depiction of Satanic Conspiracy CHAPTER 4: Rites of Evil: Constructions of Maleficent Religion and Ritual Ritual as a Point of Otherness Ritual and the Monstrous Realm Ritual as a Point of Danger The Implications of Evil Rites CHAPTER 5: Imputations of Perversion The Imaginative Resources of the Monstrous Constructing the Monstrous Conclusions CHAPTER 6: The Performance of Evil Performance and Demonic Realms Direct Mimetic Performance Indirect Mimetic Performance Direct Mimetic Parody Conclusions CHAPTER 7: Mobilizing against Evil Contemplating Evil, Chasing Evil Matters of Fact and Fantasy Notes Select Bibliography Index