MadHatter wrote: I would have to post a mild disagreement with Satanists being listed as part of the Abrahamic faiths. For the most part any codified faith with organisation and clear cut ritual, beliefs, and religious books tend to be of the Church of Satan verity. To the best of my knowledge Satanism was codified in the late 60s by Anton LaVey. Sure prior to that people have been called satanists but no structure or belief system was fleshed out. ( Again to the best of my knowledge.
So considering that the path was forged and codified as an atheistic one I dont think it properly falls into this category. Many people call themselves theistic Satanists but could not voice what they believe very well. At least none that I have met. So I do not really take such things into account. Again if I am wrong please I am open to education. But as far as I know actual Satanism is not Abrahamic.
As a Satanist I am scratching my head a little at this whole post. The point of this thread was for people to share their thoughts, knowledge, and experience on the subject of Abrahamic religions that don't get discussed among the warring siblings: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. It was never my intention to start a debate, especially over the legitimacy of my own religion belonging to the Abrahamic rite.
I am from a non-theistic sect of Satanism diverging from the strictly individualistic and self-indulgent history of the religion, but all the literature upon which my beliefs are based still come from a distinctly Christian understanding of Satan. I have yet to read LaVey's work (amazing how little he matters when you don't follow his brand of Satanism), but I suspect that even with LaVey the Satan he invoked with that name was a Christian conception of Satan. Satanism is a much more recent, perhaps one of the youngest siblings in the lineage of Abrahamic religions.
steamboat28 wrote:
Jamie Stick wrote:
- Gnostic Christianity
- Christianity that rejects the Trinity
Gnosticism is only vaguely arguably Abrahamic, given their thoughts on the demiurge. Non-trinitarian Christianity is still Christianity, so I don't count it as a separate faith-group under the Abrahamic umbrella.
I included Gnosticism here only because it might be considered a syncretic blend of older Gnostic traditions into the Christian packaging. Although Gnosticism could be its own topic, I don't think anyone would fault me for wanting to point out the Christian flavor Gnosticism took on during the early years of the Roman Empire's demise. When I add these other forms of Christianity, I call them "other Abrahamic religions" specifically because they are not in the spotlight regardless of how they might consider themselves. Additionally, I wanted to include people who are somewhat inaccurately described as Gnostics simply because there has been confusion between the Gnostic gospels and gospels that were discarded by the Catholic Bishops as they worked hard to create their vision of a unified church and a unified gospel message (by silencing any voice or destroying any document which contradicted their chosen version of the story).
Topic Author
