Richard Raiswell and David R. Winter, The Medieval Devil: A Reader. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022, xviii, 397 pp.

Abstract

Abstract This compilation collects primary source materials on the history and representation of the devil in ancient and medieval Christianity. Over the course of eleven chapters, the ninety-eight excerpts included in this book chart the development of the character of Satan and the activities of his demonic minions among humankind from Jewish antiquity to the fifteenth century. The chapters follow a roughly chronological order, but some of them present specific themes over the course of time. Chapter 1 (Sources for the Medieval Devil) primarily comprises excerpts from the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament with two exceptions: samples from Plato on the nature of pagan daemones and from the medieval Aggadah on rabbinic interpretations of the fall of Satan (nei­ther of which actually informed medieval Christian views of the devil). As the editors make clear, biblical texts do not present “a coherent narrative” about Satan, but only “sparse clues” about this “exceptionally elusive and contingent creature” (3). Chapter 2 (Development of a Narrative) focuses on the first three centuries of Christianity with excerpts from Philo of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Lactantius, as well as apocryphal stories like the Gospel of Moses and the Testament of Solomon. Although Origen of Alexandria is present in two excerpts, his important contribution to the doctrine of universalism, according to which all rational creatures obtain salvation, including the devil, deserves a fuller treatment than it receives here.