Demonic Forces Research Articles

Chartism’s Critical Carbon Theology: What Fossil Power’s Nineteenth-Century Demonizers Contribute to the Ethics of Energy Justice Today

Recent scholarship on religion and energy highlights the religious attachments some groups of people form with fossil fuels that have served to facilitate their extraction and use in building socially and economically stratified worlds. This scholarship foregrounds the business owners, managers, scientists, inventors, industrial spokespersons, and other panegyrists of the beneficent, civilizing power of coal and oil. However, little research to date has examined the religious attachments formed with fossil fuels by those who mined them, labored with machines powered by them, and lived in places that were diminished to extract, burn, and waste them. This article builds on the work of Andreas Malm and Terra Schwerin Rowe to examine these “critical carbon theologies”. It focuses in particular on the theological themes in popular literature produced by the nineteenth-century British Chartist movement—the first great social movement led by those who experienced in their bodies, communities, and environments the traumas that accompanied the introduction of fossil fuels as a motive power. These Chartist activist-theologians condemned coal power as a demonic force in history and envisioned a way to exorcize an industrializing society of its demons. This article uncovers and evaluates the largely overlooked theological dimensions of this movement and applies them toward a consideration of the ethics of energy transition today.

Reflecting on Evil and the Devil in Pentecostal Theodicy

Most Pentecostals, at least in the global South, believe that Satan and his demonic forces are responsible for much of the carnage and suffering that characterise life on earth. The broader context of the discourse is the challenge theodicy poses to Christian believers: if God is almighty and good, why do believers, just like unbelievers, suffer while living on earth? This paper aims to discuss Pentecostals’ response: they blame evil as Satan’s strategy to oppose God. They reason that his main goal is to handicap and double-cross creation because God threw him and his followers from heaven following his rebellion against the divine order. Thus, Satan is portrayed as the instigator of the first human couple, tempting them to sin, with all future generations implied by their choice and cursing human beings with a sinful nature at birth. Demonic forces employ human sinful nature to realise their ultimate goal, to separate humankind from the Creator by tempting them to sin while also threatening the rest of creation. This article investigates the Pentecostal theology of demonic forces in explaining the challenges posed by theodicy by comparing it to biblical data, using grammatical-historical exegesis and a comparative literature survey to evaluate their biblical grounding. It concludes that Pentecostals’ belief in such forces are justified if the the New Testament narratives are accepted as divine revelation. However, some Pentecostal speculations about demons’ origins, scope and reach are not biblically justified and complicates the response to theodicy, such as the origin of evil and its relation to human beings.

Peran Hamba Tuhan Dalam Mengajarkan Musik Gerejawi Bagi Remaja Pemuda Di GKSI Bethesda Sosok Kalimantan Barat

Teaching church music for young people is one of the most important activities for God's servants to do. This music teaching aims to prepare young people to take part in the ministry, namely bringing music. Youth as the pillars of the church, must be properly equipped because they are the future of the church. Music is very important in worship. With music, it can encourage the congregation to praise and glorify the name of God. The introduction and teaching of ecclesiastical music for young people is one of the most important things for God's servants to do. Because with the magical music teaching program for young people, it can be a bridge for them to find their identity as servants of God and also to explore and hone the potential that exists within them. So that with the teaching of church music, it will make young people know and understand what church music is. They can also take part in the ministry of playing music at church services. Using music is a command from God as a means of praising and glorifying the name of God. The use of music in the Bible is not only used in praising and glorifying the name of God, but in the Old Testament it explains and gives written verses that musical instruments are also used when starting war (2 Kings 3:15), to celebrate victory in war (1 Samuel 10:5), to comfort hearts that are in a state of joy or sorrow, and also musk is used to expel demonic forces that disturb humans (1 Samuel 16:23). Meanwhile, in the New Testament, music is not only used to praise God, but music is also used to mourn people who have died (Matthew 9:23), and music is used to sing to God

From Hucksters to Holy Men

Abstract Men who roamed Japan’s mountains, conducting austerities for the benefit of themselves and others, have been historically viewed along an opposing set of extremes, ranging from wonderworkers, immortals, and other Buddhist ideal types to charlatans, social deviants, and subhumans. The ascetic’s ritual space—the mountains—functioned as a geographical other that could either arouse Buddhist awakening or strange, demonic forces. Against this extreme ambivalence toward mountains and mountain ascetics, organized religion offered a means to transcend the margins and find a secure place within society. After examining opposing depictions of medieval ascetics, this article explores an attempt within Shugendō to thoroughly remake their image. While the institutionalization of Shugendō has often been equated with spiritual decline, actors within Shugendō in fact sought to transform the body of the ascetic from an uncanny spectacle into a manifestation of the divine, thereby constructing a new identity for its practitioners.

Mythical Bird Humay in the Traditional Worldview of the Bashkirs

The article is devoted to the analysis of the image of Humay, that is one of the key characters in the oral folk art of the Bashkirs. In the mythology of the Bashkirs, Humay acts as a mythical swan bird, the mistress of the bird kingdom, possessing the gift of reincarnation. Humay-swan is a divine bird. She is not only the daughter of the Sun and the solar deity Samrau, but she herself is the incarnation of the Sun. As the wife of the the hero-ancestor and the god-demiurge Ural-batyr, Humay gives him the heavenly horse Akbuzat and the magic damask sword. She participates in the creation of nature and fauna of the Southern Urals and fights demonic forces. In mythology, Humay is recognized as the foremother of the Bashkirs. In the oral literature of the Bashkirs, remnants of reasoning about the Humay bird as a benefactor of people are found. As a mother-goddess, Humay patronizes the creation and preservation of family relationships, the fertility of women, and is the intercessor of women in childbirth. In the folk art of the Bashkirs, she acts as the patroness of heroes, the giver of happiness and wealth, and can also regenerate a person in a new quality. The image of the female deity Humay / Umay is found in the mythology of a wide range of peoples of the world.

Bestiary Motifs in Cycle of Stories by Pavel Krusanov “The King of the Head”

The themes and poetics of the collection of short stories by P. V. Krusanov “The King of the Head” is characterized in the article. The collection is considered as a cycle with certain semantic and associative connections, secondary structural unity, genre, figurative-metaphorical and stylistic rapprochements, a through plot, cycle-forming motives. The novelty of the study is due to the tendency of modern prose to create this supertextual unity and, at the same time, insufficient knowledge of this phenomenon. The analysis of one of the leading cycle-forming motifs of the “King of the Head” - the bestiary motif, has been carried out. Each of the stories in the collection contains images of animals or metaphysical beings. Through them, the heroes of the works come into contact with another reality, paradisiac or infernal world, mortal space. The heroes of the collection cross the boundaries between their own body and consciousness and the bodies and consciousnesses of animals, or they are possessed by demonic forces. The images of animals are associated with the allegory of the spiritual path, along which, descending or ascending, the characters of the stories follow. A large number of zoomorphic comparisons and metaphors that capture the world, which is in a state of confusion, with the barriers between the living and the dead, bodily and mental, levels of consciousness are also used in the collection.

Taming Nature and Gaining Authority—Rabbinic Decrees Reconsidered

Abstract The root gzr, in nominal and verbal forms, is prominent in rabbinic literature and is usually translated ‘legislation’ or ‘decree’. However, attention to the numerous rabbinic accounts in which rabbis employ this root demonstrates that it was not merely a term used for human legislation. Rather, in rabbinic Amoraic narratives, the root gzr was often used by the rabbis to gain control over their surroundings and subdue the natural and supernatural, in both Palestine and Babylonia. Comparing these narratives to contemporary Jewish magical texts highlights the uniqueness of this rabbinic decree. Therefore, translating gzr in rabbinic literature strictly as a legal decree obscures important components of the self-presentation of the rabbis, especially the way they conceived of and represented the power of their rulings. Finally, I suggest that a careful reading of legal-magical decrees may teach us about the place of the rabbis in a world in which miracle workers, magical practitioners, and the rabbis themselves competed over the power to defeat demonic forces of evil.

Jesus's Self-Defense in Luke 11:14–26: Confounding Challengers and Critiquing Other Exorcists

Luke presents Jesus defending his exorcistic power in 11:14–26 through two connected portions of text. After the initial challenges in vv. 14–16, Jesus refutes his accusers in vv. 17–20 by placing them in a series of confounding challenges through an unarguable proverb (vv. 17b–18), a conundrum regarding other Jewish exorcists (v. 19), and the eschatological risk of missing the kingdom of God (v. 20). The second part of Jesus's defense (vv. 21–26) is a critique of other Jewish exorcists. These other exorcists are the "strong ones," who are regularly overcome by "stronger" demonic forces (vv. 21–22). Thus, they end up being "against" Jesus (v. 23). They may have the capacity to cast out a single demon, but their techniques cannot resist the greater demonic powers that return to repossess a person (vv. 24–26). Jesus's invincible exorcistic power trumps anything that other exorcists can do, proving that his ministry signals the arrival of God's kingdom.

Domesticated Lilith: The Integral Role of the Demonic Feminine in the Esoteric Writings of the German Pietists

This study argues for the cross-boundary role of the demoness Lilith in the writings of the medieval Jewish esotericists, known as the German Pietists. Lilith is one of many demonic forces who took on roles in both the celestial and terrestrial spheres. As demonstrated in central works such as The Book of the Divine Glory, mystical and magical speculations placed her in discussions on divine punishment, demonology, and complex questions regarding legal prescriptions. Her integration into the theosophical doctrine of the pietists is evidenced by the thorough amalgamation of various genres and topics where she is discussed. The hierarchic subservience of demons toward the angels and the Holy One is thus an important aspect of how such evil forces found their place within a cohesive system.

Dominating Demons in the Old English Prose Acts of Andrew

Dominating Demons in the Old English Prose <i>Acts of Andrew</i>

PAMIĘĆ O KOZAKU UKRAIŃSKIM W UJĘCIU LITERACKIM ROMANTYKÓW UKRAIŃSKICH I POLSKICH

PAMIĘĆ O KOZAKU UKRAIŃSKIM W UJĘCIU LITERACKIM ROMANTYKÓW UKRAIŃSKICH I POLSKICH

The End of Whiteness

Many well-meaning “white” people adopt an antiracist agenda because we believe it provides the antidote to pernicious racialized inequity in the United States. Ironically, this schema maintains racism, strengthens whiteness as the measure of humanity, and inoculates us against imagining any alternative to racism’s logic. I argue that we can break the fetters of racism by framing whiteness as a principality and power. Perceived as a demonic force rather than an “identity,” we can perceive the goals of whiteness as well as the spirituality that fuels it—and cast it out. We are then freed to “reinvent the future,” emancipated from racialized politics and its violence.

Гений поэтической выразительности. Часть первая (На материале публицистической статьи С.Н. Сергеева-Ценского «Гоголь как художник слова»)

In the aspect of the “scientific-research dialogue” of the author of this study with the writer of the twentieth century Sergei Nikolaevich Sergeev-Tsensky, his publicistic miniatures “Gogol as an artist of the word” (1952), “Talent and genius” (1957), included in the collection “Work hard and joyfully”. It is emphasized that the writer’s work the of the twentieth century Sergeev-Tsensky was written as a pedagogical parting word to future generations and as a call to cherish and study their native Russian language, to cherish the Russian word on the material of the “genius of artistic expression” Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. The stylistic and poetic findings of the writer in various stories, in the poem “Dead Souls” and in the dramatic work – the comedy “The Government Inspector” are considered. The ways of creating a literary portrait and landscape, the language system means in depicting the psychological details of the portrait and landscape characteristics of comic heroes (on the example of the portrait of Sobakevich), as well as the speech characteristics of the “The Government Inspector” are investigated. Attention is drawn to Gogol’s techniques of “style play” and some deliberate violations of lexical norms in the construction of portrait characteristics in order to emphasize very significant psychological details. As an addition to Sergeev-Tsensky’s reasoning, the specifics of Gogol’s descriptiveness in the real and the fantastic synthesis are specified on the example of significant details, for example, the story “Viy” from the “Mirgorod” cycle. The fear of the author of “Mirgorod” and “Taras Bulba” of confusion in the minds of the characters of Divine and demonic forces is emphasized.

Damned Ecologies

AbstractThis article uses a queer ecocritical methodology to analyze constructions of the environment and subjectivity in American spiritual warfare demonologies (discourses about the reality and activity of demons) published in 2008–18. There has been a surge in critical research on evangelical climate skepticism, the ecological thought of far-right movements, and the growing influence of Christian nationalism and charismatic evangelicalism on the US political landscape. Spiritual warfare, which constructs reality as a battle between divine and demonic forces, is a key part of this landscape. This article shows how spiritual warfare demonology operates as a tool for the construction of entwined social, political, and environmental ecologies, combining notions of deviant nature and deviant culture. Such ecologies both reinforce and destabilize biopolitical hierarchies that enshrine a normative (white, settler, cisheteropatriarchal) model of the human over both other (racialized, queered) humans and the nonhuman world. Critically rereading spiritual warfare demonologies through queer ecology, the article shows that such texts frame the fights against climate change and for queer and racialized subjects as prongs of a demonic assault on the futurity of white Christian America. Such texts reveal spiritual warfare demonology to rest on an ecological ultimatum: that nature will be normative or it will not be at all.

ΟΝ THE MOHYLIAN SUBTEXT IN HRYHORII SKOVORODA’S DIALOGUE «ARCHISTRATIGUS MICHAEL'S FIGHT WITH SATAN»

The paper explores Hryhorii Skovoroda’s dialogue “Archistratigus Michael's Fight with Satan” (“Bran Arkhystratyha Mykhaila so Satanoiu”, 1783), which contains several quotations from two authors — Teofan Prokopovych and Varlaam Liashchevskyi – who belonged to Skovoroda’s Alma Mater, the Kyiv Mohyla Academy. Being a unique occurrence in Skovoroda’s writings, these quotations from contemporary authors have been analyzed as an instance of a peculiar “Mohylian subtext” that sheds light on the relationship between the Ukrainian philosopher and his Alma Mater. In “Bran Arkhystratyha”, the angelic ranks battling against demonic forces sing a song taken from Liashchevskyi’s tragicomedy “The Chased Church” (“Honymaia tserkov”) and from Prokopovych’s 1709 epinikion in honor of tsar Peter’s victory near Poltava. While Prokopovych’s verses have been slightly changed (Antichrist replaces ‘apostate’ — ‘otstupnyk’) to reflect the major theme of “Bran Arkhystratyha” — the fight against Satan — the presence of two fragments from Liashchevskyi's tragicomedy in the text is even more important, as “Bran Arkhystratyha” is the only available source for reconstructing the textual content of this tragicomedy, of which we do not possess any extant copies. Of particular interest are also the paratextual materials attached to the quotations from Liashchevskyi and Prokopovych. All three citations are accompanied by an explanatory note stating: 1) the author to whom the citation belongs; 2) the authors’ affiliation to the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy; 3) information about the fire that destroyed the library of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy on February 29, 1780. This choice testifies to a specific urge on Skovoroda’s part to honor Alma Mater and its representatives three years after the fire that threatened its book collection and cultural legacy. In this personal tribute, the notion of memory acquires a specific meaning for, in the case of Liashchevskyi, “Bran Arkhystratyha” preserves a text that would not otherwise have been transmitted. Thus, the ‘victory’ glorified in the dialogue becomes first and foremost a victory against oblivion, through the projection of the Word into the realm of eternity.

Pornography and the Erotic Phantasmagoria.

Susan Sontag, in her classic 1967 essay, “The Pornographic Imagination,” argued: “Tamed as it may be, sexuality remains one of the demonic forces in human consciousness …. “In the last half-century, Sontag’s demonic force of sexuality has transformed pornography and the “pornographic imagination”—let along social relations between women and men. In this essay, I adopt Walter Benjamin’s concept of phantasmagoria—a magic-lantern show of optical illusions, rapidly changing size and blending into one another—as the metaphoric commodity form of postmodern capitalist society, fetishism-on-display. I examine the evolution of technological forms of pornographic representation over the last two centuries, including the magiclantern, daguerreotype, photography, stereoscope and film as well as the internet, erotic toys, electronic devises, VR and sex robots. These developments are set against a background of equally profound legal and cultural developments that have recast the sexuality of postmodern America. I argue that these (and other) developments have recast patriarchy and, in some important ways, the sexual relations between “consenting” adults. I conclude reflecting on the current intellectual and political debate about pornography between “pro-sex” and “anti-sex” feminists. With the enormous increase in the production and availability of pornography, I ask, perhaps “quantity” can give way to improved “quality”? I ask whether today’s sexual phantasmagoria can fashion a “new” feminist sexuality—and a more humane pornography?

Мистические видения и их оценка в русском масонстве конца XVIII – начала XIX века

In the richest manuscript heritage of Russian freemasons, who lived two centuries ago, there are numerous descriptions of various mystical experiences. These are visions and mystical dreams in which beings from the other world appeared, as well as deliberately evoked mystical states by which an adept attempts to penetrate into the other world. For censorship reasons, this aspect of the activities of Russian brothers practically did not go beyond the narrow circle of initiates. The article will attempt to present the main types of mystical experience reflected in the manuscripts of Russian freemasons – mostly diaries and correspondence. The most valuable information of this kind is contained in so-called “Masonic dreams”. These stories constitute a special genre of Masonic literature and preserved in a significant number of manuscripts. They were based on the idea of a special inner, spiritual vision, which has an adept and which allows him to achieve clairvoyance. Masonic dreams contain a significant amount of details related both to the Masonic ritual and symbolic decoration of the premises of Masonic lodges, and to those practices of moral self-improvement that are important for the Masonic path. Russian freemasons paid considerable attention to the problem of evaluating such experience – is it a gift from the divine essences or a temptation sent by demonic forces? The question of the significance of such an experience was also important: is it an accidental consequence of Masonic work, a hindrance on the way, or, on the contrary, a kind of confirmation of progress in following the Masonic path? The Orthodox Church, to which the Russian freemasons belonged, is extremely negative about such forms of mysticism. Therefore, they were forced to seek explanations for such phenomena in Catholic and Protestant mysticism, as well as in the European esoteric tradition. The article attempts to answer these questions, based on the analysis of a wide range of Masonic manuscripts of the 18th - early 19th centuries, preserved in the families of Russian Masons and today located in the Moscow archives.

Confitendum et proficiendum: Augustine on the Rule of Faith and the Christian Life

The rule of faith obtained an increasingly flexible usage in the fourth and fifth centuries. In Augustine's various writings on the creed, we can see how he envisioned Christian engagement with the rule as extending beyond baptismal education to involve an ongoing and dynamic process of Christian transformation, particularly as it pertained to the heart. In catechetical sermons on the creed, the focus is on memorizing the creed by heart. In De agone Christiano, the heart is the site of battle with demonic forces. In De fide et symbolo, Augustine emphasizes purity of heart. In the Enchiridion, Augustine teaches the creed for wisdom and piety in the heart. For the ordinary Christian, the rule of faith serves as a means of progressive growth in the Christian life. Only in the beatific vision, when faith turns to sight and God himself becomes the Christian's vision, can the creed be laid to rest.

The Significance of the "Ransom Saying" in Mark 10:45

The ransom saying in Mark 10:45 has been variously understood as referring to Jesus's death as a substitutionary sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, a victory over demonic forces, or an exemplary sacrifice for his followers. This study assesses the relative plausibility of these three interpretations within the broader context of Mark's Gospel. A survey of the primary proposed textual allusions behind the saying and a consideration of the possible meanings of λύτρον ἀντί in light of ancient Greek texts indicate that all three readings are possible. In the broader literary context of Mark, however, the evidence does not support reading the ransom saying as a reference to Jesus's death as a sacrifice for sins or a means of victory over demonic powers. Instead it favors reading the saying as a reference to Jesus's death as an exemplary sacrifice for his followers.

Chickpeas at a Shalom Zakhar

Abstract There is a popular Ashkenazic custom to serve chickpeas at the Shalom Zakhar celebration on the first Shabbat after a male child is born. Numerous homiletic reasons have been given for this in rabbinic literature. The origin of the custom lies in the practice to serve legumes, a food traditionally associated with mourning, at happy celebrations in order to confuse demonic forces who were understood to desire harming celebrants at such events. The chickpea was the legume of choice due to its longstanding association with fertility.