RELST-318 How Satan Became the Devil
Satan does not enter history as the horned ruler of hell we recognize today. This course follows how a relatively minor figure in early Jewish traditions became Christianity’s great enemy of God. Along the way, we will meet fallen angels who teach humans forbidden knowledge, demons who possess bodies, monks who claim to wrestle with the Devil in the desert, and exorcists trying to identify what has taken control of a person. We will also see how Satan became connected to heresy, witchcraft, and fears about the end of the world. Rather than treating the Devil as one unchanging character, we will ask why different societies kept reinventing him. Students will explore a larger question: what does a culture reveal about itself when it decides what evil looks like?
Seminar (12)
Credits
1