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| Document Type: | Book |
|---|---|
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Miguel A De La Torre; Albert Hernández |
| ISBN: | 9780800663247 0800663241 |
| OCLC Number: | 496966015 |
| Description: | xii, 248 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 23 cm. |
| Contents: | Desperately seeking Satan -- Satan in the Modern World. Satan goes to Hollywood ; Satan among Satanists ; Satan among Fundamentalists ; Satan among Catholics ; Satan and the Left Behind series ; Satan among Liberals ; Satan and ethical thought -- The Birth of Satan: a Textual History. Before Satan's conception ; Satan's conception: the Hebrew bible ; Satan's childhood: Babylonian captivity and Persian influence ; Satan's adolescence: the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha ; Satan's early adulthood ; Clearing through the muddle ; Ethical concerns -- Satan Through the Ages. From Hellenistic syncretism to Christian exclusivity ; Satan's army versus the sword of the spirit ; Jesus saves! ; Wrestling with tricksters or demons? : a case study ; Satan matures in early Christian discourse ; Saint Augustine and the problem of evil -- Satan Comes of Age. Greco-Roman cults and magicians ; The collapse of an empire ; Fear and evil in the early medieval imagination ; Evil characters in medieval Arthurian literature ; Satan's role in destruction and the coming of the Anti-Christ ; Satan in Dante's Inferno ; Medieval witches ; The colonized other -- The Devil Made Me Do It. Satan's death ; The modern myth of Dr. Faustus ; Satan's resurrection ; Satan reimagined from a liberative perspective ; Satan as trickster? ; The ethics of a Christian trickster. |
| Responsibility: | Miguel A. De La Torre and Albert Hernández. |
Abstract:
The figure of Satan has for centuries embodied or incarnated absolute evil. Existing alongside more intellectualist interpretations of evil, Satan has figured largely in Christian practices, devotions, popular notions of the afterlife, and fears of retribution in the beyond. Satan remains an influential reality today in many Christian traditions and in popular culture. But how should Satan be understood today? This volume probes the murky origins of the satanic legends and beliefs back to their pre-Christian roots in the Middle East. In it the authors unearth the Satan's roots in Egyptian and Babylonian understandings of evil. They also show, however, that the ancient Satan has some characteristics we would hardly recognize, especially his appearance in most ancient cultures and survival in many traditional religions as the 'trickster' figure. While a minor tradition in historic Christianity, the authors argue, seeing Satan as trickster is historically accurate and holds real promise for Christian rethinking in 'theology, philosophy, and practice of evil' and how it can be dealt with. This is a study that helps the reader reframe basic elements of our worldview of good and evil.
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