Editing Satanism (section)

=== Literary ===

From the late 1600s through to the 1800s, the character of Satan was increasingly rendered unimportant in western philosophy, and ignored in Christian theology, while in folklore he came to be seen as a foolish rather than a menacing figure.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=29}} The development of new values in the [[Age of Enlightenment]] (in particular, those of [[reason]] and [[individualism]]) contributed to a shift in many Europeans' concept of Satan.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=29}} In this context, a number of individuals took Satan out of the traditional Christian narrative and reread and reinterpreted him in light of their own time and their own interests, in turn generating new and different portraits of Satan.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=28}}

The shifting concept of Satan owes many of its origins to [[John Milton]]'s epic poem ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' (1667), in which Satan features as the protagonist.{{sfnm|1a1=Dyrendal|1a2=Lewis|1a3=Petersen|1y=2016|1p=28 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=70}} Milton was a [[Puritan]] and had never intended for his depiction of Satan to be a sympathetic one.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=28, 30}} However, in portraying Satan as a victim of his own pride who rebelled against the Judeo-Christian god, Milton humanized him and also allowed him to be interpreted as a rebel against tyranny.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=30}} In this vein, the 19th century saw the emergence of what has been termed ''literary Satanism'' or ''romantic Satanism'',{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=73}} where in poetry, plays, and novels, God is portrayed not as benevolent but using His omnipotent power for tyranny. Whereas in Christian doctrine Satan was an enemy of not only god but humanity, in the romantic portrayal he was a brave, noble, rebel against tyranny, a friend to other victims of the all powerful bully, i.e. humans. These writers saw Satan as a metaphor to criticize the power of churches and state and to champion the values of reason and liberty.<ref name=JPLS2023:chpt.1-Invention>[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 1981]]: chapter 1. What Is Satanism? Anton LaVey and the Invention of Satanism</ref>

This was how Milton's Satan was understood by [[John Dryden]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kk1AQAAIAAJ&q=%22but+he+is+a+satanist+only%22+%22dryden%22 |title=Seventeenth-century Critics and Biographers of Milton – M. Manuel – Google Books |date=23 July 2010 |accessdate=2022-10-08|last1=Manuel |first1=M. }}</ref> and later readers such as the publisher [[Joseph Johnson (publisher)|Joseph Johnson]],{{sfnm|1a1=Dyrendal|1a2=Lewis|1a3=Petersen|1y=2016|1pp=28, 30 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2pp=69–70}} and the anarchist philosopher [[William Godwin]], who reflected it in his 1793 book ''[[Enquiry Concerning Political Justice]]''.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=30}} ''Paradise Lost'' gained a wide readership in the 18th century, both in Britain and in continental Europe, where it had been translated into French by [[Voltaire]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=70}} Milton thus became "a central character in rewriting Satanism" and would be viewed by many later religious Satanists as a "''de facto'' Satanist".{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=28}}

According to Ruben van Luijk, this cannot be seen as a "coherent movement with a single voice, but rather as a ''post factum'' identified group of sometimes widely divergent authors among whom a similar theme is found".{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=108}} For the literary Satanists, Satan was depicted as a benevolent and sometimes heroic figure,{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=69}} with these more sympathetic portrayals proliferating in the art and poetry of many [[romanticist]] and [[Decadent movement|decadent]] figures.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=28}} For these individuals, Satanism was not a religious belief or ritual activity, but rather a "strategic use of a symbol and a character as part of artistic and political expression".{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=31}}

[[File:Lucifer Liege Luc Viatour.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Guillaume Geefs]], ''[[Le génie du mal]]'', 1848]]
Among the romanticist poets to adopt this concept of Satan was the English poet [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], who had been influenced by Milton.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=71–72}} In his poem ''[[Laon and Cythna]]'', Shelley praised the "serpent", a reference to Satan, as a force for good in the universe.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=97–98}}
Another was Shelley's fellow British poet [[Lord Byron]], who included Satanic themes in his 1821 play ''[[Cain (play)|Cain]]'', which was a dramatization of the Biblical story of [[Cain and Abel]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=73}} These more positive portrayals also developed in France; one example was the 1823 work ''Eloa'' by [[Alfred de Vigny]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=74–75}} Satan was also adopted by the French poet [[Victor Hugo]], who made the character's fall from Heaven a central aspect of his ''[[La Fin de Satan]]'', in which he outlined his own [[cosmogony]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=105–107}}
Although the likes of Shelley and Byron promoted a positive image of Satan in their work, there is no evidence that any of them performed religious rites to venerate him, and thus they cannot be considered to be religious Satanists.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=108}}

Radical left-wing political ideas had been spread by the [[American Revolution]] of 1775–83 and the [[French Revolution]] of 1789–99. The figure of Satan, who was seen as having rebelled against the tyranny imposed by Jehovah, was appealing to many of the radical leftists of the period.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=77–79}} For them, Satan was "a symbol for the struggle against tyranny, injustice, and oppression... a mythical figure of rebellion for an age of revolutions, a larger-than-life individual for an age of individualism, a free thinker in an age struggling for free thought".{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=31}} The French anarchist [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]], who was a staunch critic of Christianity, embraced Satan as a symbol of liberty in several of his writings.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=117–119}} Another prominent 19th century anarchist, the Russian [[Mikhail Bakunin]], similarly described the figure of Satan as "the eternal rebel, the first freethinker and the emancipator of worlds" in his book ''[[God and the State]]''.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=119–120}} These ideas probably inspired the American [[feminist]] activist [[Moses Harman]] to name his anarchist periodical ''[[Lucifer the Lightbearer]]''.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=120}} The idea of this "Leftist Satan" declined during the 20th century.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=120}}