Frequent discussions of Satan from the pulpit, in the courtroom, in
print, in self-writings, and on the streets rendered the Devil an
immediate and assumed presence in early modern Scotland. For some,
especially those engaged in political struggle, this produced a
unifying effect by providing a proximate enemy for communities to
rally around. For others, the Reformed Protestant emphasis on the
relationship between sin and Satan caused them to suspect, much to
their horror, that their own depraved hearts placed them in league
with the Devil. Exploring what it meant to live in a world in which
Satan's presence was believed to be, and indeed, perceived to be,
ubiquitous, this book recreates the role of the Devil in the mental
worlds of the Scottish people from the Reformation through the
early eighteenth century. In so doing it is both the first history
of the Devil in Scotland and a case study of the profound ways that
beliefs about evil can change lives and shape whole societies.
Building upon recent scholarship on demonology and witchcraft, this
study contributes to and advances this body of literature in three
important ways. First, it moves beyond establishing what people
believed about the Devil to explore what these beliefs actually
did- how they shaped the piety, politics, lived experiences, and
identities of Scots from across the social spectrum. Second, while
many previous studies of the Devil remain confined to national
borders, this project situates Scottish demonic belief within the
confluence of British, Atlantic, and European religious thought.
Third, this book engages with long-running debates about
Protestantism and the 'disenchantment of the world', suggesting
that Reformed theology, through its dogged emphasis on human
depravity, eroded any rigid divide between the supernatural evil of
Satan and the natural wickedness of men and women. This erosion was
borne out not only in pages of treatises and sermons, but in the
lives of Scots of all sorts. Ultimately, this study suggests that
post-Reformation beliefs about the Devil profoundly influenced the
experiences and identities of the Scottish people through the
creation of a shared cultural conversation about evil and human
nature.
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