Ruben van Luijk was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Children of Lucifer is based on his research as a PhD student at the Faculty of Catholic Theology, Tilburg University and as a research fellow at Radboud University, Nijmegen. Van Luijk is also active as a photographer, novelist and artist.

Best First Book in the History of Religions, 2017 American Academy of Religion Book Awards

"Children of Lucifer is a tour de force and the best book on the historical development of Satanism out there." -- Lukas Pokorny, Religious Studies Review

"Ruben van Luijk's Children of Lucifer: The Origins of Modern Religious Satanism is the most readable of a current rush of books on Satanism ... [it's] a highly valuable and immensely enjoyable book." -- Numen

"[T]he prose is engaging and would pose little problem for those unfamiliar with the shibboleths of academia Children of Lucifer is best at exploring the wider field of Satanic discourse, namely the interplay between literature about Satanism and more explicitly religious manifestations of Satanic practice."--Ethan Doyle White, Correspondences

"Van Luijk is an eminent specialist of the Belle Époque, and a master storyteller. All the chapters of his book about late 19th-century France are rich in details nobody else found before him, and the story is told in such a vivid prose that even those who have no special interest in esotericism or Satanism would find the book extremely entertaining Van Luijk's book is indispensable for understanding the Belle Époque and the medieval and early modern precursors of modern Satanism."-- Massimo Introvigne, Aries - Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism

"I recommend Children of Lucifer not only for its engrossing history, but also because Luijk engages critically-problematizing and theorizing through-a vast oeuvre of well-known nineteenth- and twentieth-century authors, poets, philosophers, theologians, and occultists. This scope will surely appeal to graduate students, literary critics, and scholars of Christianity, Western Esotericism, and New Religious Movements."--Tarryl Janik, Nova Religio

"This book provides sweeping treatment of a fascinating and challenging theme that might well provoke its readers into rethinking the intellectual foundations of Western modernity."--Stephen W. Angell, The Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"It is by far the most comprehensive history of Satanism available...Recommended."--CHOICE

"Van Luijk's book is a welcome addition to the emerging field of studies of religious Satanism. Children of Lucifer successfully argues that rhetoric around the figure of Satan marginalizes political enemies and reflects social concerns-and modern religious Satanism is yet another example of this-as it promotes a radical marginality as an empowering identity."--Reading Religion

"A tremendously important, meticulously researched and wittily written book, which will change the way we look on Satanism."-Per Faxneld, coauthor of The Devil's Party: Satanism in Modernity

"Contrary to popular news, Satanism is not just statues and coloring books. Through the dual mechanisms of attribution and identification, Ruben van Luijk's monumental work examines the history of modern Satanism from early modern Christian inventions to the appropriation and reinterpretation of contemporary satanic groups. This is first-rate scholarship with an impressive attention to detail and breadth of insight, which never fails to captivate the reader. Children of Lucifer proves that to understand the present we must understand history."-Jesper Aagaard Petersen, co-author of The Invention of Satanism (2015)

"If you want the real story of Satanism, then read this book. Extremely well documented and full of surprising twists and turns, it shows that history is much more exciting than the predictable standard products of the sensationalist imagination."-Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy, University of Amsterdam