Abstract
Abstract Members of The Satanic Temple have presented themselves as “nice” Satanists who advance the values of compassion and social justice. This move has earned them scorn from some more traditional Satanic groups, notably the Church of Satan founded by Anton LaVey, which has accused The Satanic Temple’s members of being fake Satanists and plagiarizing everything that LaVey built. This chapter suggests that there is no objectively authentic form of Satanism and that Satanism is better understood as what Benedict Anderson called “an imagined community.” Thus a variety of sources can be invoked to form models of what Satanism is or ought to be. In redefining Satanism, The Satanic Temple and other socially engaged Satanic groups have looked past LaVey to the Satan portrayed by nineteenth-century Romantics. They argue that works by Byron and Shelley represent an older mode of Satanism that is compatible with their values of compassion and egalitarianism.
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