Particularly influential was The First Book of Enoch (ca. That the devil died in the Enlightenment may be moot, but certainly his role in Western civilization has diminished greatly.Īlmond reveals just how diverse ancient Hebrew and Christian stories were about the devil’s origins.

Almond details the birth (chapter 1), fall from heaven (chapter 2), role in Christian theology (chapter 3), long and varied life (chapters 4 through 7), and “death” (chapters 8 and 9) of this mythical creature. It is deeply immersed in the Christian tradition yet treats the subject with scholarly detachment and objectivity. Almond, a prolific scholar who has published books on English witch trials and demonic possession cases, on the witch skeptic Reginald Scot, and on the histories of Adam and Eve and of heaven and hell, among other subjects, describes his new volume as a “secular history” of the idea of the devil. It is therefore critical that we give the devil his historical due.Īlmond’s biography carves out of the mass of works related to the diabolical a carefully delineated history that is both scholarly and accessible and that contributes to the intertwined fields of Christian theology, magic, witchcraft, and demonology. Of course the ostensible death of the devil did not end human atrocities in the West, but in explaining these we need to consider the lingering effects of the centuries-long demonizing of particular outsider groups, such as the Jews. Belief in, and fear of, these usually invisible, spiritual creatures motivated some of the most heinous crimes against other humans, especially Jews, heretics, and alleged witches. It was, as Philip C. Almond notes in this new biography of the devil, impossible for Christians to imagine a cosmos without the devil until the late seventeenth century, or even later. While supernatural beings, such as angels and demons, are now excluded in scientific discourse, they are explicit in Christian scriptures and dominated European debates over the nature of the cosmos well into the Enlightenment. Waite (Department of History, University of New Brunswick)Įven today, popular culture revels in the supernatural, especially its dark sides.

The Devil by Philip C. Almond