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

by David Frankfurter

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Occult, American History, Politics, Satanism

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important and confident book, and one that is organized quite ineffectively. It is, as the other reviewers have noted, very repetitive, but that actually worked for me; believers in SRA and other such conspiracies are repetitive in their accusations of Satanism, so it's fitting that Frankfurter would be repetitive in calling out these accusations and myths as what they really are: the workings out of Otherness, anxiety, and latent, primal fears.

However, the structure of this book really did not work for me at all, and I think this might be what the other reviewers are really saying when they complain about the book's repetitiveness. The book takes an approach typical to ritual studies (which, by the way, you'll want to have a bit of background in before reading this) by breaking up the players in demonic conspiracy accusations to various roles. This is fine and dandy, but organizing the bulk of the book (excluding the first chapter, which presents a history of demonology as a social project) around covering the different roles in these events does lead to a lot of repetition of the dynamics at play, while also not offering the reader at any point a comprehensive background in any particular area all at once. You kind of gain the background through the book as a whole, with plenty of Freudian psychoanalysis (which I know next to nothing about so RIP me) and random bits sprinkled about. The book also ends in a very rushed way, and I genuinely wonder if Frankfurter had a publishing deadline or something; the final chapter is much shorter than the others, and it really doesn't achieve what he states its purpose is.

That's a lot of criticism, and I think it's warranted, but content is more important than form when dealing with these more scholarly books, as long as it's not put together in such a backwards way so as to be literally incomprehensible. While this book may be confusingly organized, the attentive reader will still walk away with a pretty clear understanding of what he's trying to say (I know this because I'm not an attentive reader, and I still think I got it). This is a good ritual studies take on satanic panics, and it helped me to understand quite a bit about modern satanic conspiracies and why they have such an enduring hold on us silly Westerners. Now to just figure out a way to deal with that...

3.5/5

Drive safe,
Sam

[Jana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnf :/

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, it's very seldom I get angry at a book for being so long but my stars that took all I had not to rage quit and throw this book across the room. Incessantly repetitive and maddeningly pedantic this book tried my patience at every turn. Written like a college paper that needed a minimum word count or someone who gets paid by the character. I'll save you alot of trouble, read the last chapter while you're standing in line and ask the cashier to put it back for you. That will save you alot of pain and frustration. I will say I am giving it 2 stars because it was very scholarly and well researched but the long winded nature of it really negated any joy that normally would've brought. Recommended to a very select audience, maybe religious scholars or anthropology students needing a good citation. 2/10.

[Scott Ferry · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were parts of the book that were really interesting and delved into areas that i had not read about yet. A lot of the more interesting theories came, I felt, at the beginning of the book and the end. But I had to give it 3 stars as i felt the author repeated himself throughout a lot of the book.

[Megan Denny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I'll admit that I am a sociology Ph.D. student and may have a higher tolerance for long works of theory than others, so take that with a grain of salt. However, if you are also someone who appreciates thoroughly explained concepts based in a complex theoretical understanding of human behavior, then this is a book to consider. I found the connections between repeated historical events really interesting. I feel that it has given me a much better perspective on modern claims of SRA, as well as the bizarre phenomenon of Q-Anon. It is always impressive when a work written before a new phenomenon works so well to explain it.

[Marcin Jezewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially I was bit disappointed as the expectations after reading the reviews was bit different. I was expecting more like a dive into history of satanic conspiracies (spoiler alert it’s nothing of this sort). This is a very good read nonetheless with its survey of psychology behind rumours of satanic conspiracy.

[Conrad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A scholarly written book giving an in depth psychological look at demonic conspiracy and satanic abuse. Unfortunately, I am not an academic so it was hard for me to follow a lot of it. It did bring up interesting points like there are more ritual killings as a result of punishing demons/witches than innocents being killed for demonis purposes or the fact that nobody questions a majority of the evil that satanic cults do in their secret rituals is told by former members who have converted to Christianity.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting topic that the author managed to grind to a completely dull and repetitive halt.

[ERBinator Productions · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome! So well written! Read for school but liked it so much I went to buy a copy

[Yael · Rating 4 out of 5]

DNF (got a little more than halfway through). objectively well-written but just not interesting enough for me

[Rachel]

dnf - not bad, but a bit more academic than even I was looking for

[Stephen Cranney]

Surprisingly boring. Too theoretical for my taste.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thick heavy and though provoking.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like it. This is one of the books I had to read for my religious studies senior seminar class and although I was expecting something different, it was not bad at all. Honestly, I actually learned something different about “evil” that I never knew about. Frankfurter tells us his three main arguments in this book:
1. He suggests that there is a consistency in the myth of evil conspiracy.
2. He argues that there is a consistency of how these myths of evil conspiracy are activated in time and place.
3. He argues that historically demonstrable atrocities take place not in the rituals of some evil realm or as terms of some evil force, but rather in the path of “purging evil and its alleged devotees from the world” (Frankfurter 224).
Frankfurter explains events such as the witch hunting movement to attempts at genocide, and how it is the discourse of evil and their “annihilation” that most certainly motivates participants to commit atrocities of evil. So it is the discourse of evil and not some kind of force. Great book plus I really liked the medieval horrific pictures he used. I highly recommend it.