Background

The Church of Satan, the seminal example of organizational Satanism, was founded in 1966. During the 1970s, the Church of Satan was wracked by a history of numerous schisms. Despite the notoriety of Satanism in popular culture, few scholars have analyzed the Church of Satan as a religious organization. Furthermore, not many scholars have directly discussed the schisms that it has undergone.

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to analyze the Church of Satan, an understudied case in American religious organizational history, and its schisms. A theoretical framework based on religious economies and organizational ecology is introduced to account for schism in Satanism, which hitherto has been dominated by European cultural milieu arguments.

Methods

A historical case study is performed on the case of the Church of Satan, using primary and secondary documentation, in order to address four theoretical propositions.

Results

Findings demonstrate costliness, authority, doctrine, and niche/environment were all potential causes for the schisms that impacted the Church of Satan.

Conclusions and Implications

The Church of Satan conforms to religious economies and organizational ecology theory expectations of schism. Further research is needed to understand organizational aspects of Satanism and other avant garde religious groups.

中文翻译：

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撒旦分裂教会的组织分析

背景

撒旦教会是有组织的撒旦教的开创性例子，成立于 1966 年。在 1970 年代，撒旦教会被无数分裂的历史所破坏。尽管撒旦教在流行文化中臭名昭著，但很少有学者将撒旦教会分析为一个宗教组织。此外，没有多少学者直接讨论过它所经历的分裂。

目的

这项研究的目的是分析撒旦教会（美国宗教组织历史中一个未被充分研究的案例）及其分裂。引入了基于宗教经济和组织生态学的理论框架来解释撒旦教中的分裂，迄今为止，这种分裂一直被欧洲文化环境争论所主导。

方法

对撒旦教会的案例进行了历史案例研究，使用主要和次要文献，以解决四个理论命题。

结果

调查结果表明，成本、权威、教义和利基/环境都是影响撒旦教会分裂的潜在原因。

结论和意义

撒旦教会符合宗教经济和组织生态学理论对分裂的期望。需要进一步研究以了解撒旦教和其他前卫宗教团体的组织方面。