Mephistopheles
The Devil in the Modern World
Published on 31. October 1986
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-0-8014-1808-2 (ISBN)
Description
An excellent and important intellectual history.-Library Journal
Using examples from theology, philosophy, art, literature, and popular culture, Russell describes the great changes effected in our idea of the Devil by the intellectual and cultural developments of modern times.
Mephistopheles is the fourth and final volume of Jeffrey Burton Russell's critically acclaimed history of the concept of the Devil. The series constitutes the most complete historical study ever made of the figure called the second most famous personage in Christianity. In the first three volumes, the author brought the history of Christian diabology to the end of the Middle Ages. This volume continues the story from the Reformation to the present, tracing the fragmentation of the tradition.
Using examples from theology, philosophy, art, literature, and popular culture, Russell describes the great changes effected in our idea of the Devil by the intellectual and cultural developments of modern times.
Mephistopheles is the fourth and final volume of Jeffrey Burton Russell's critically acclaimed history of the concept of the Devil. The series constitutes the most complete historical study ever made of the figure called the second most famous personage in Christianity. In the first three volumes, the author brought the history of Christian diabology to the end of the Middle Ages. This volume continues the story from the Reformation to the present, tracing the fragmentation of the tradition.
Reviews / Votes
An excellent and important intellectual history.(Library Journal) It is more than the history of demonological imagination as it has been displayed for half a millennium in theological controversies, in poetry, novels, paintings, and witch trials: it is the history of European man trying to cope with the terrifying riddle of radical evil.... Both an extremely rich scholarly work and an exiquisite exercise in a topic that is unlikely ever to die off in our civilization.
- Leslek Kolakowski (Journal of Modern History) Jeffrey Burton Russell is not only a conscientious historian, he is also an introspective essayist who acknowledges his own continuing struggle to understand the nature and the source of evil.
- Robert Coles (New York Times Book Review) No few sentences can adequately convey the book's richness of content and seriousness of purpose. Russell has without doubt bequeathed us a magnificent synthesis of Western culture's modern, tortuous grappling with the ideas of radical evil and the devil.
- Brian Easlea (American Historical Review) This book moves with sustained seriousness and brilliance across five centuries, from Luther's time to our own... and, although it has all the virtues of great intellectual history, it is explicitly rooted in a profound moral analysis of our own era.
- M. D. Aeschliman (National Review)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ithaca
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paper over boards
Illustrations
34 halftones - 26 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
907 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8014-1808-2 (9780801418082)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
Preface 1. Evil2. The Reformed Devil3. The Devil between Two Worlds4. Satan Expiring5. The Romantic Devil6. The DeviI's Shadow7. The Devil in a Warring World8. God and DevilBibliography
Index
Index