A devil of a character
The Devil is something of a misunderstood figure, finds Ted Harrison in this scholarly tour-de-force; most of what we ‘know’ about him is mediæval fantasy
The Devil and His Advocates
Erik Butler
Reaktion Books 2021
Hb, 272pp, £20, ISBN 9781789143737
Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, Old Nick… he goes by many names in many myths and the image of the evil archfiend with horns and forked tail is well ingrained in the public psyche. He embodies the dark side of human nature and represents the existence of evil in the world.
Yet might the Devil be a somewhat maligned figure, in need of a PR makeover? Yale researcher Erik Butler considers the idea in The Devil and his Advocates.
He delves into a wide variety of sources, starting with the Bible, continuing through the superstitious years of the mediæval era into Gothic iconography and hard rock music to suggest we might have got the Devil all wrong.
The diabolical fallen angel might not be one of the good guys. He’s not the embodiment of all evil either, but a rather misunderstood figure. In his malevolent way he serves a divine purpose: he is the tempter whose job it is to test the resolve of the holy.
In the Book of Job he provokes the unfortunate Job in the most extreme ways, but Job never cracks under the pressure and despite poverty, boils and bereavement remains obedient to God. Similarly in the New Testament it is Satan’s role to goad Jesus in the wilderness with visions of food when he is fasting, and wealth and worldly power. “Get behind me, Satan,” orders Jesus as he passes the test with flying colours.
On the other hand, Satan all too often wins the moral tussle, as the 16thcentury story of Faust illustrates. Faust is rewarded for agreeing to serve Satan, in the form of Mephistopheles, but pays a high price. When his period of indenture is over he is found in his chamber beaten to a pulp with blood and brains spattered across the walls. A warning to all.
The existence of a supernatural prince of darkness lording it over a malodorous sulphur pit where the damned are tortured for eternity is not a Christian view, at least not one based on biblical sources. This idea of Hell is an amalgamation of paganism, folklore, misunderstood scripture and human anxiety. The Devil is a synthesis of disconnected sources from Scripture, remnants of preChristian superstition and our own response to inner “demons”.
Yet, by the 14th century in Europe, Hell had developed its own geography and in Dante’s Divine Comedy there is even a kind of imaginary map describing Hell, Purgatory and Heaven placed in ascending order. The underworld is vividly described. Dante and Virgil are the explorers who find, as they “make their way through the rings of hell, the air grows darker and colder”. They see Lucifer beating his enormous wings. Everything about the Fallen Angel looks, writes Butler, “like a warning more terrible than the inscription at the gates of Hell, ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here’”.
John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost, 300 years after Dante, created a fuller description of the character of Lucifer. In his own environment he can appear “mighty, even Godlike”. Out of his element he can appear “undignified, a poisonous buffoon”.
Mediæval Europe revelled in the two contradictory images of Satan. He took on a comic persona in folklore, but in the ecclesiastical context was depicted so graphically as to terrify the faithful into righteousness. Mediæval churches often had massive wall paintings of an imagined Hell with the Devil as tormentorinchief punishing the wicked. On the outside the buildings were adorned with fearsome gargoyles.
The survival of the Devil through the Enlightenment, the Romantic era and into the Age of Reason and modern times is addressed in detail. He exists as a metaphor in fiction. In iconographic form he survives in such spheres as the contemporary Gothic movements where he appears in fashion, visual arts and music. Attempts have been made to invent a Satanic religion with fantasy fauxrituals.
The philosophical study of the nature of evil is as pertinent now as ever, especially after a century which saw two world wars, the Holocaust and the invention of nuclear weapons. A figure to embody that evil remains fully employed.
The Devil also survives as a “reality” in the religious fundamentalist teachings that remain highly influential in the politics of conservative America. It is an apocalyptic faith that expects the Last Judgement imminently in a form based on the Book of Revelation in which the Devil, “The Beast”, is ultimately defeated.
Yet in recent times, the origins of the figure are becoming obscured. It is forgotten that the Devil is a shapeshifter, taking on new forms for new generations. After the 9/11 attack in New York the composer Stockhausen talked of the terrorists’ deed as “a Satanic composition”.
Butler concludes: “Satan follows God’s orders and plays second fiddle eternally.” He is there to test the faith of the righteous. “The Devil as a cosmic force working to his own ends is mythology, pure and simple. Even if he plays the part of ‘bad cop’ Satan has never caused anything. At most, he has helped those already inclined to accomplish ignoble ends, in order to assure the damnation they merit.”
Butler’s book is a scholarly tourdeforce citing the widest range of thinkers. From St Augustine to Nietzsche, Freud and Foucault. And from the world of literature and the arts come Byron, Shelley, Mann, Blake and Mozart; even Hannibal Lecter gets a mention.
Notwithstanding the heavy duty material, the book remains a hellish good read. ★★★★★
The image of the evil archfiend with horns and forked tail is well ingrained in the public psyche