The devil is the personification of evil, so an opening chapter
defines evil as "abuse of a sentient being, a being that can feel
pain." Dostoevsky, Colin Turnbull's mountain people, the daily
newspaper are among the points of reference in this pointed,
concrete but literate and humane introduction. Jung is a recurring
theorist, with the journey from individuation's knowledge of good
and evil to integration as the hoped-for goal seen as having
meaning for mankind, as well as for the individual. Per the
subtitle, this is Part I of a history, the history of the concept
of the devil - the reasons why this continuous objectivation of
forces felt to threaten men has been found necessary at different
times within the period covered, and the ways in which it has taken
place. An excellent teacher-to-layman discussion of how we know and
learn, of history and in particular of the history of concepts,
constitutes the first third; here, the latter is distinguished from
the conventional history of ideas as being more broadly based and
dealing with PsYChological levels deeper than the rational. Then we
move to that learned and masterly two-thirds of the book which
traces the history of the concept of the devil through the bizarre
deserts of the mythology of the ancient world. The string which
threads the selection of material is the monist/dualist question,
in that "the perception of a flawed world is deeply rooted in each
individual soul." If there is one god and he good, whence evil?
"Dualism wrenches from the unity of God a portion of his power in
order to preserve his perfect goodness." A professonal historian's
book, and a sometimes eloquent one, impatient of intellectual games
and dealing with a problem central to humanity. (Kirkus Reviews)
"Evil—the infliction of pain upon sentient beings—is one of the
most long-standing and serious problems of human existence.
Frequently and in many cultures evil has been personified. This
book is a history of the personification of evil, which for the
sake of clarity I have called 'the Devil.' I am a medievalist, but
when I began some years ago to work with the concept of the Devil
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, I came to see that I could
not understand the medieval Devil except in terms of its historical
antecedents. More important, I realized that I could not understand
the Devil at all except in the context of the problem of evil. I
needed to face the issue of evil squarely, both as a historian and
as a human being."—from the Preface This lively and learned book
traces the history of the concept of evil from its beginnings in
ancient times to the period of the New Testament. A remarkable work
of synthesis, it draws upon a vast number of sources in addressing
a major historical and philosophical problem over a broad span of
time and in a number of diverse cultures, East and West. Jeffrey
Burton Russell probes the roots of the idea of evil, treats the
development of the idea in the Ancient Near East, and then examines
the concept of the Devil as it was formed in late Judaism and early
Christianity. Generously illustrated with fifty black-and-white
photographs, this book will appeal to a wide range of readers, from
specialists in religion, theology, sociology, history, psychology,
anthropology, and philosophy to anyone with an interest in the
demonic, the supernatural, and the question of good and evil.
General
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