ONLINE FIRST
published on November 5, 2024
Felix Parker
https://doi.org/10.5840/asrr2024114117
Who Is Mine Adversary?
The Construction and Cosmological Role of Satan and Satanism in American Vernacular Christianity
This article examines the sociocultural circumstances which have made the United States of America a global focal point for widespread fear of Satanism, and the ensuring consequences in regards to vernacular religious belief, political rhetoric, and violence. This analysis combines an ethnography of American Christian presence online, with journalistic primary secondary sources and academic theory, taken from a range of disciplines including historical, historiographic and literary analysis and psychological research. It compares the efficacy of the methodologies of Ren¨¦ Girard and Mark Juergensmeyer for the analysis of these phenomena, and proposes a framework of dual reality for understanding the apparent paradoxes of identity, perception of the world and personal and group behaviour found within American Charismatic Christianity. The article critiques Girard¡¯s approach to Scapegoat Theory, proposing a minor adjustment of perspective to expand its applicability and efficacy.