ABSTRACT
The popular mediatization of contemporary exorcism practice in the West reveals a discursive fascination with what Evangelical Protestants traditionally label “fringe” religion: big institutions, bureaucratic structures, scary iconography, body rituals, and clerical clothing. “Occultist,” “Satanist,” and “exorcist” emerge as successful brands for which media outlets market dark supernatural content. This allows adherents of Modern Satanism, in their mission to provoke and resist religious hegemony, to model themselves in opposition to public Christian supremacy in the form of its religious boogeyman. I contextualize exorcism practice within the cultic milieu of contemporary American society through an examination of alternate Western spiritualities and re-enchantments. I ask: “What do Christians do once they no longer want to be Christian?” In the case of one recently mediatized Satanic exorcist in America (Shea Bilé), traces of Christian rhetoric surface within his religious performance – ironically and not. Does Bilé represent the “individual” or “folk”? Larger cultural movements of religious experimentation and eclecticism? His significance to the study of American religion concerns his reflection of complex modes of Christian supersession, how his individual creation of Satanic practice remains shaped by Protestant Christianity sensibilities. Bilé ultimately exhibits the conditions of modern religiosity, the fruit of a post-Christian complex of behavior.
