Convincing proof the devil does exist and still manifests his presence. Covers diabolical infestation, obsession, and possession. Many famous cases of possession and exorcism, plus a general discussion of the devil. This is one of the best books on the subject of possession ever written. Discusses also Satan at Lourdes--to distract from the apparitions of 1858--and the devices of Satan to deceive us. 210 pgs. PB
Mephistopheles is the fourth and final volume of Jeffrey Burton Russell's critically acclaimed history of the concept of the Devil, continuing in this volume the story from the Reformation to the present.
The Devil has fascinated writers and theologians since the time of the New Testament, and inspired many dramatic and haunting works of art. Today he remains a potent image in popular culture. The Devil: A Very Short Introduction presents an introduction to the Christian Devil through the history of ideas and the lives of real people.
...probably the first thorough review of modern demonology...superb. Recommended... - Library Journal...a terrifically contextualized debunking that is sure to generate debate among the faithful. - Publishers Weekly...a fascinating book on the psychology of modern Western culture. - Science & Spirit MagazineThis fascinating discussion of modern demonology focuses on our ability to differentiate the physical world, with its mechanical laws, from the inherently less predictable psychological realm of thoughts and beliefs. McGrath points out that this ability was a hard-won historical development, and today must be learned in childhood through education. Because of this historical background and our rich fantasy life in childhood, each of us unconsciously suspects, or fears, that supernatural forces may break through the borders of our everyday commonsense order at any time. Indeed, at times of personal stress or societal crisis, the modern boundaries between fantasy and reality begin to slip, and then a magical world of demons and other phantasms can come flooding back into our disenchanted reality.Through this innovative thesis McGrath goes a long way toward explaining both our fascination with fantasy entertainment, such as horror stories and films, and bizarre crazes such as witch-hunts, Satanism scares, and even claims of alien abduction. Despite our demystified culture the lure of childhood's magic kingdom with its monstrous shadow realm remains strong.Malcolm McGrath (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a doctoral candidate in political philosophy at Oxford University.
From the National Book Award-winning and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of The Gnostic Gospels comes a dramatic interpretation of Satan and his role on the Christian tradition. "Arresting...brilliant...this book illuminates the angels with which we must wrestle to come to the truth of our bedeviling spritual problems." —The Boston Globe With magisterial learning and the elan of a born storyteller, Pagels turns Satan’s story into an audacious exploration of Christianity’s shadow side, in which the gospel of love gives way to irrational hatreds that continue to haunt Christians and non-Christians alike.
Over half of Americans believe in a literal heaven, in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. Ehrman shows that eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament, and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught. He recounts the long history of the afterlife, ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the writings of Augustine, focusing especially on the teachings of Jesus and his early followers. Ehrman shows that competing views were intimately connected with the social, cultural, and historical worlds out of which they emerged. -- adapted from jacket
This volume draws on the author's six-year correspondence with Flannery O'Connor in this evaluation of the Southern writer as an intellectual and as a student of the Western tradition in literature and religion. He emphasizes her deep connection with writers such as Joyce and Bernanos in the context of the Modernist tradition, and discusses how her study of these religious writers influenced her visions of world apocalypse and religious community. The author studies the revealed tensions and interrelationships of O'Connor's "secular intellect" versus her "religious intellect."
For centuries the figure of Satan has 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? "The Quest for the Historical Satan excavates cultural, historical, religious, and morally constructed productions of evil within Christianity, from myth and legend to the complex ways people conjure the embodiment of evil and harm. De La Torre and Hernßndez are engaging sleuths as they carefully examine Satan's conception and his presence in modernity and through the ages. The wrestle with the spiritual notions of Good and Evil and justice and injustice.-Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan Professor of Theology and Women's Studies Shaw University Divinity School
Slaves of Satan is an extraordinary book that looks at the darkest corners of the human and diabolical mind and answers the question of why. Why do human beings commit some of the most horrific, appalling, and unspeakable acts known to man. What is it that drives these evil people; serial killers, cult leaders, occultists, and dictators to leave a trail of murder, violence, sexual depravity, and total unmitigated destruction in their wake. Author Patrick Bell through years of extensive research has done a deep dive into one of religions most controversial and terrifying subjects, diabolical possession, and the most serious and horrifying form of it known as Perfect Possession. When a human being has given themselves, their intellect, mind, will and body, their very souls over completely to the source of all evil, Lucifer. The author examines the theology and church teaching behind perfect possession, the three types of it, who it occurs to and why and then examines people from history (Slaves of Satan) who were perfectly possessed including serial killers, dictators, the international occult elite and the diabolical deeds and destruction they have perpetrated, led on by their master the devil, upon the human race.
