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The Origin of Satan:
The New Testament Origins of Christianity's Demonization of Jews, Pagans and Heretics
By Elaine Pagels
New York, Random House, 1995. 214 pp. $23.00.
Elaine Pagels is well known for her studies of Gnosticism, particularly The Gnostic Gospels (1979). She is also the author of the widely read Adam, Eve, and the Serpent (1988). Her thesis in the present book is that the Christian tradition has "allowed for the demonizing of others," and this "fault line" may be traced back to the New Testament Gospels and the very beginnings of Christianity.
She does not really trace a religious or cultural history of Satan as symbol and concept but focuses first on Christianity's Jewish background and origin. Her basic conclusions are two: (1) Socially and psychologically, Satan is a way of referring to the "intimate enemy," the trusted person or persons who betray someone out of hostile jealousy. (2) This conflict of the self vis-a-vis others is then projected onto opponents, who are "demonized," understood as Satanic, representatives of Satan. In the emergence and development of Christianity, this projection occurred in radical fashion. These conclusions are pursued in a historical overview of the Gospels, of Christianity against paganism, and of the Christian struggle with heretics.
It is a bad book but lucidly written and on a popular subject, so it will undoubtedly be widely read. Its unexamined assumptions include pragmatic relativism (an idea or conviction cannot be "true," but it's good if it works now), moral autonomy (each person is obligated only to...