Folklorists, mythologists, and English literary scholars have focused far more attention on Lovecraft and his corpus, with a dozen books, numerous articles, and for a time even a yearly journal, Lovecraft Studies, on H.P. Other scholars have traced connections between Lovecraft’s work and a variety of new religious movements, often those upholding visions of alternative archaeologies or histories ( Caterine 2014 Card 2019). Such scholars have demonstrated Lovecraft’s enduring impact within that religious milieu. The few religious studies scholars who have studied Lovecraft have focused on unpacking his connections to Western Esotericism, especially his impact on Esotericists whose religious practices have been inspired by Lovecraft’s writings ( Engle 2014 Hanegraaff 2007 Bolton 2011 Davis 2014), or his influence on other new religions ( Colavito 2005, pp. Only a handful of panels at major religious studies conferences (American Academy of Religion, International Association for the History of Religions, etc.) in recent decades have included coverage of Lovecraft, and only four articles on Lovecraft and his works appears in the ATLA publication database, which is the standard catalog for religious studies. By some recent counts, nearly one hundred published authors have adopted the “Cthulhu mythos” and written stories set in Lovecraft’s world-many of which share this same cluster of themes of gods, demons, cults, and sacred texts ( Jarocha-Ernst 1999).ĭespite this presence of religion in Lovecraft’s work, scholars of religion have paid relatively little attention to Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos, with a few notable exceptions. This pattern of engagement with religious topics repeats throughout Lovecraft’s corpus, especially the several dozen short stories that have come to be called the “Cthulhu mythos,” since they share much of the same cosmology and narrative world as “The Call of Cthulhu.” Lovecraft’s literary successors, led by August Derleth, who co-founded Arkham House Publishers to promulgate Lovecraft’s work, expanded this rich religious vision to an even greater extent, as did later authors ( Mackley 2013). Perhaps most famously, his signature short story, “The Call of Cthulhu,” centers on the ancient god Cthulhu, his human worshippers, and those who become enmeshed in the mystery of this “dead, yet dreaming” god’s fate. Lovecraft’s stories involve demonic beings, “blasphemous cults,” and mysterious sacred texts held by orders of priests and priestesses. His work features malevolent supernatural entities that the author and his imitators variously refer to as Old Ones, Elder Gods, Outer Ones, or simply gods. Lovecraft’s (1890–1937) short stories-the most famous of which, “The Call of Cthulhu,” has led to a literary subculture and a shared mythos employed by Lovecraft’s successors. Tied to his nativist views of social decline, I argue that Lovecraft expresses in his fiction a peculiar form of millennialism, “anti-millennialism,” which entails the reversal of traditional millennialism, offering no hope in a collective salvation, but rather expectation that the imminent future would bring only decline. This article offers a close analysis of millennialism within Lovecraft’s thought, especially as expressed in three of his “Cthulhu mythos” stories: “The Call of Cthulhu,” “The Dunwich Horror,” and “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” This article considers Lovecraft’s formative experiences and non-fiction writings so as to contextualize his approach and millennial outlook. Despite this presence of religion in Lovecraft’s work, scholars of religion have paid relatively little attention to Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos, with a few notable exceptions.
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