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Angels and Demons

• A Brief History of Satan (Part 1): Introduction, Old Testament teaching
• A Brief History of Satan (Part 2): Inter and New Testament periods
• A Brief History of Satan (Part 3): Middle ages and modern era
• The origin and meaning of 666

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A Brief History of Satan (Part 3): Middle ages and modern era

Information: This is Part 3 of a brief history and overview of Christian beliefs about Satan. A version of this article was originally published on the website www.faithnet.org.uk.

Satan and the Christian Church during the Middle Ages

As Christians beliefs developed, so Satan's role became more defined. However, so did the temptation to label those who did not agree with the Church as agents of evil. This unsurprisingly led to the persecution of numerous non-Christian groups, was the impetuous for the Crusades and led to witch-hunts and the Inquisition. It would also eventually lead to the destruction of many indigenous cultures (E.g. The Mayan civilisation), in the name of Christ, the Church and truth.

In 1095 Pope Urban II sent the crusading armies into battle against the 'infidel' Muslims, who had conquered Jerusalem. The Crusades are one of the most sorry affairs in Christian history, and were largely motivated by the idea that people were fighting a holy war against not only human 'enemies', but also spiritual ones.

The Muslims were tarred by the brush of the Prince of Darkness. Muhammad was the devil incarnate and his followers the servants of Satan. (Stanford P., The Devil: A Biography, Henry Holt & Co, 1996 p.117)

Later on the Jews would be 'tarred with the same brush', accused by the Church of being the murderers of Jesus.

Under the Inquisition (12th-17th centuries), enemies of the Church were tortured and burnt for the sake of their souls, which were believed to be in the devil's possession. As before, Satan was used to define and punish the Church's enemies (which the Inquisition also believed justified their horrific 'conversion' methods). Satan was also very often seen in everyday activities. For instance, if you enjoyed sex or food too much, then you were believed to be possessed by a demon of gluttony. The witch-hunts often singled out attractive women for being too alluring to men, thus tempting them to want to have sex with them (temptation being a characteristic of evil). Many people were handed over to the Inquisition and burnt at the stake, simply because they had upset a neighbour. In an age of blind superstition and fear of the devil, the claim that someone was an enemy of he Church and in league with Satan was easy to make, and slow to refute. 

Although the Crusades, witch hunts and the Inquisition are serious blemishes in Church history, there are Christians today (E.g. certain Evangelical groups), who believe that these actions were not performed by true believers (or true Christians).

Although this was a dark period in Christian history, one of the most important developments for shaping our understanding of Satan in the western world occurred during this time. As many people could not read and did not have access to the Bible, plays were often put on to teach people about the biblical stories, and various spiritual and moral lessons from it. In these 'plays', the character of the devil was often represented using much of the imagery we associate with it today: horns, redness, animal characteristics etc.

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Satan in the modern era

When people started to question the Church's teaching and think for themselves, everything changed. The Enlightenment (Age of Reason), which began in Europe in the seventeenth century, marked a turning point in not people's relationship with God, but also the devil. By subjecting religious 'truth' to reason (or only believing what was reasonable), people began to reject those things they could not validate with their senses. We should not be surprised to learn that the first casualties in the Age of Reason, were religious truth-claims.

Coupled with the new science of Freudian psychology in the nineteenth century, religious belief also began to find itself being gradually internalised. God, and subsequently the devil, began to be seen as things which existed solely within a person's mind, rather than literal entities 'out there' in the world. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939 - pictured) argued that religion was a symptom of psychological and emotional alienation from oneself and family, rather than any deity. In other words, the idea of a 'devil' (Satan) said more about us, than it did about any existing supernatural realty.

In terms of the notion of evil, Freud's student Carl Jung (1865-1971) suggested that the darker aspects of human nature (and the cosmos) were merely alienated aspects of one's own personality, which he called the shadow. However, whereas Freud saw the darker aspects of our psyche as essentially sexually related problems, Jung believed the shadow was formed by those aspects of our lives which we try to repress, yet in doing so they manifest themselves in 'rebellious' behaviour (i.e. repressing one's sexual drive may result in promiscuous behaviour). Thus, whereas Christianity had tended to alienate evil and understand it as something which was opposed to good, Jung saw evil as that which needed to be recognised and in some ways embraced, in order for a person to be psychologically and emotionally balanced.

In the Satanic Bible, the founder of the Church of Satan Anton Szandor Lavey implies that 'Satan' should be understood more in psychological, rather than literal terms.

The trend in the modern era to internalise religious belief, has had interesting repercussions in our sociological understanding of Satan. For example, whereas in the past the cure for demonic possession had been exorcism through the Church, now it often begins with the psychiatrist's couch. Only in Fundamentalist religious circles do we still find people insisting that a cosmic battle is being waged between two real entities called God and Satan, and that people can literally be possessed by the devil. Nowadays, when the presence of evil is acknowledged in individuals and society, this is usually explained through either genetics, or social and family influences. For instance, in explaining why Hitler committed such evil acts, most people would research his upbringing, rather than blame Satan for his actions.

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