Satan: A Biography

by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

The Devil, like the poor, is always with us. Evil has been personified in every religion and culture, and Christianity in particular developed a highly graphic view of him from its earliest period. Sometimes grotesque, sometimes beautiful, sometimes threatening, sometimes seductively helpful, sometimes comical, Satan has played a variety of roles in human existence. Feared and frightening adversary of humankind during the Middle Ages, supposed master and friend of witches during the sixteenth century, and seducer of the devout during the seventeenth, he was gradually explained away as the nineteenth century started to lose its faith at home and export him in all his traditional aspects to the Empire. He made a startling and vicious come-back during the twentieth century as a focus of renewed admiration and even worship. This book follows the Devil through his various, sometimes surprising incarnations from the ancient world to the present, and shows that his reign is by no means over, even in the West.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Peter G. Maxwell-Stuart is a Research Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Aberdeen and an Honorary Lecturer in the Department of History in the University of St. Andrews.

Source: Macmillan

Reviews

[John Mannion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off well with an account of how Jewish and early Christian ideas coalesced into the figure of the devil. Then gets bogged down in an overly detailed exploration of medieval ideas and practices. Gives short shrift to major literary responses to Satan such as Dante, Marlowe and Milton and doesn’t even mention Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner . Equally little discussion of Satan’s extensive film career.

Incredibly small font in this edition; illustrated but pictures not well referenced in the text; excessive use of the word ‘anent’.

[Brian Yatman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense, scholarly, dry and, after the umpteenth account of demonic possession in medieval France, a little bit claustrophobic. The author steadfastly refuses to interpret these first-hand accounts in the light of modern rationalist/psycho-analytical thinking. Heavy going, but fascinating. Still, I was relieved to finish the book.