For in seeking to free Christians from a Church reformers claimed was rigid and corrupt, the Protestants opened themselves up to the possibility that all laws, rules and constraints might be replaced by faith. Following Martin Luther’s 1517 rejection of the constraining, legalistic force of Catholic law, Civil War England was a chaos of competing sects. Paradise Lost was written against a backdrop of religious ferment. And tracing the history of that rebellion brings us, today, to the startling conclusion that post-Christian America is an increasingly Satanist regime.
And the Reformation was foundational to the modern West (and especially to America). This matters, because Milton wrestled with core questions of law, authority and personal freedom that roiled at the heart of the Protestant Reformation. In Milton’s 1663 Biblical epic Paradise Lost, Satan both longs for the Heaven he’s renounced, but stubbornly refuses to be ruled, declaring: “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven”. Perhaps Milton is to blame Cromwell’s chief propagandist is famous for creating the most sympathetic Satan in literary history. And Americans in particular are highly susceptible. It goes without saying that in our febrile online political climate, the convergence of “abortion”, “ritual”, “lawsuit” and “Satan” resulted in a lot of publicity for the group.īut how did we get to a point where an online magazine with 10 million monthly readers is hailing Satanists as last-ditch heroes? The truth is that our modern sympathy for the devil has deep roots. The Satanic Temple has an impressive track record in self-promotion via outrage, such as founding a Satanist after-school club. In response, Salon magazine declared it the “last, best hope” for protecting abortion rights in the state. But it hit the headlines last week when it announced plans to sue the government of Texas for restricting women’s ability to abort a pregnancy. And in the hands of this class, the Devil’s proverbial pride, self-regard and refusal to yield isn’t just celebrated - it’s on its way to becoming the established religion of the United States of America.Īmerica’s Satanic Temple, founded in 2012, is still small in terms of absolute membership. If being deliberately anti-Christian pour épater la bourgeoisie feels exhausted, for the new, post-Christian bourgeoisie Satan now reads like the good guy. These days, while there’s plenty of Satanist imagery about, overtly anti-Christian symbols seem either banal ( Lil Nas selling Satan trainers) or just naff ( WitchTok).īut if devilish imagery mostly feels a bit cringe, the Devil himself has gone mainstream.
In 2021, even the idea of a priest as the main protagonist in a battle between good and evil feels, well, very 1973. But even setting aside the fact that the other “side” seems to have won, Nobell’s story evoked less shock than nostalgia.
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The whole story evoked The Exorcist, which came out a few years before I was born and was considered the ne plus ultra of shocking content into my tween years in the nineties. Does he have the best books too? Apparently so, at least where soft porn is concerned: last week, it was reported that Xavier Nobell, a prominent Catholic exorcist and bishop, has resigned from the Church in order to be with his lover, a writer of “erotic-satanic” fiction. Proverbially, the Devil has all the best tunes.
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