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Considering the NT Satan, February 16, 2009
This review is from: Deliver Us from Evil: Interpreting the Redemption from the Power of Satan in New Testament Theology (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testmant) (Hardcover)
Deliver Us from Evil: Interpreting the Redemption from the Power of Satan in New Testament Theology (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 216) by Richard H. Bell (Mohr Siebeck) Richard H. Bell develops a theory of myth which does justice not only to the world of 'narrative' but also to the mysteries of the 'physical world'. He does this by building on the phenomenal distinction as introduced by Kant and further developed by Schopenhauer. He then applies the resulting theory of myth to two seemingly disparate examples of redemption from Satan found in the New Testament: first, the exorcisms of Jesus; secondly, the redemption of the human being from the power of Satan through the cross and resurrection of Christ as found in the Pauline tradition and in the letter to the Hebrews. Then the author makes an attempt to relate these two forms of redemption to each other and to draw some conclusions as to how these myths of deliverance from Satan can be considered true. This can lead not only to an enrichment of New Testament Theology but also to a greater understanding of the world in which we live.
Excerpt: One of the arguments used in Christian apologetics is that the devil is so cunning that he does not want people to believe in him. This is a rather speculative argument which I would not necessarily wish to pursue. But some scriptures do imply, as Thielicke suggests, that "the demonic power always seeks to remain anonymous".' So Eph. 2.2 speaks of "following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient". My analysis that the demons belong in the world of the noumenon and only manifest themselves as "mathematical points" in the world of the phenomena, coheres with this. So whereas the soul can be viewed as the "body in itself', a principle of individuation occurring in the noumenon through the activity of God, the demonic is just "part" of the one mass of the Schopenhauerian noumenon. As I say, if one can speak of the manifestation of demons in the world of "phenomena", it is as mathematical points or subjects on the boundary of the world.
The world of the demonic is therefore a real world. The devil was not simply "made up" since, as a mythical figure, he is "discovered" rather than "invented". But, as I argued above, his reality goes beyond that of say Odin or Zeus in that the biblical witness affirms that Jesus Christ defeats Satan. Satan's reality depends upon that of Christ, the ultimate reality, the concretissimum.
The exorcisms of Jesus demonstrate the defeat of Satan and the coming of the kingdom of God. I heard a story of an exorcist of the Church of England who wished to deny any "glamour" or "excitement" in his work; rather he likened the work of exorcism to cleaning out toilets. That may well be the case but the narratives of the synoptic gospels suggest a "heroic" aspect to Jesus' exorcisms. This could be called a "theologia gloriae" or a "triumphalism" which certainly has its place in the synoptic gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles if not elsewhere in the New Testament. The exorcisms of Jesus and of the Apostles can be an inspiring example. In relation to the heros of Wagner's music dramas, Scruton writes:
Precisely because we live in a morbidly unheroic world -- a world of cost-benefit calculation, in which gods and heros have no place -- we are driven to regard our own existence as some kind of cosmic mistake. If it is to have a meaning, this can come only through a gesture that throws all calculation aside, that recklessly disregards both cost and benefit and freely embraces its own absurdity.
Scruton believes that it is in erotic love that we aspire to this condition, in "those sublime moments when love prepares to sacrifice itself for the beloved"59 and show life to be worthwhile.
Such a view of making life worthwhile has its validity; but it could be a life without Jesus Christ. For the Christian it is not only such erotic love which shows life to be worthwhile. It is above all in those moments when we see and experience the presence of the kingdom of God -- it is in those moments when we see God at work -- which make life worth living. The Rabbis believed that illud tempus would arrive one day. But the Christian can experience it today. As Eliade writes:
In Christianity . . . the evangelical tradition itself implies that is already present 'among' those who believe, and that hence the illud tempus is eternally of the present and accessible to anyone, at any moment, through metanoia. Since what is involved is a religious experience wholly different from the traditional experience, since what is involved is faith, Christianity translates the periodic regeneration of the world into a regeneration of the human individual. But for him who shares in this eternal nunc of the reign of God, history ceases as totally as it does for the man of the archaic cultures, who abolishes it periodically. Consequently, for the Christian too, history can be regenerated, by and through each individual believer, even before the Saviour's second coming, when it will utterly cease for all Creation.'
In some Protestant theology there has been an unhealthy emphasis on the "theology of the cross".62 The "cross of Christ" has to be taken with the utmost seriousness. But the cross together with the resurrection is for the liberation of human beings. Much of the New Testament, as I have already intimated, speaks of what one could call a "theology of glory" or a "triumphalism". The synoptic gospels point to Jesus overcoming the power of Satan in his healing ministry. Acts presents a Church starting in Jerusalem and spreading out into the Roman empire, the work reaching its climax with Paul preaching in Rome. Paul's letters, although presenting a "theology of the cross", also stress the tremendous progress of the gospel (Rom. 1 5.1 7-21). Such a "theology of glory" can be more fully appreciated in the light of the myth of the redemption from Satan. And such a view of the redemption from Satan and demons was of tremendous power for the Church in the first centuries. Eusebius, describing the growth of the early Church writes:
In every city and village arose churches crowded with thousands of men, like a teeming threshing-floor. Those who by hereditary succession and original error had their souls bound by the ancient disease of the superstition of idols were set free as if from fierce masters and found release from fearful bondage by the power of Christ through the teaching of his followers and their wonderful deeds. They rejected all the polytheism of the demons, and confessed that there is only one God, the Creator of the universe.
By speaking of the redemption from Satan, Christians could make clear the victory of Christ over paganism and idolatry. In the context of a discussion of Christ's resurrection, Athanasius asks "how, if he had not risen but is dead, could he chase away, cast out, and lay low those false gods said to be alive by the unbelievers and the demons they worship?" He continues:
For where Christ and his faith are named, thence all idolatry is uprooted, all the deceit of demons is refuted, and no demon endures that name but, as soon as he hears it, takes to flight. This is not the work of a dead man, but one alive, and rather of God. It would be particularly ridiculous to call the demons who are cast out by him and the idols which he destroys alive, but to call dead him who casts them out and by his own power makes them disappear, and whom all confess to be the Son of God.'
One of the main points of this work is that the casting aside or the rationalization of the myth of deliverance from the power of Satan impoverishes New Testament theology. A case can also be made that such casting aside and rationalization weakens the mission of the Church. This takes us beyond the scope of the present work but it is worth emphasizing that the vision of Eusebius and Athanasius that the risen Christ destroys demons and delivers people from pagan and false gods has been essentially lost in many of the "established" Western Churches. Mission to a needy world has been replaced by inter-religious dialogue.
A mythological reception (i.e. a myth-critical reception) of the deliverance from the power of Satan impoverishes a New Testament theology. In particular, it impoverishes a reflection on Christian existence and on the extraordinary world in which we find ourselves, major themes of the present work. And such a world can astound us with its wonder, excitement and enchantment. But it can also horrify us in its ghastly depths. I began my work by referring to Thielicke's belief in the devil and demons. Karl Barth wrote this about his visits to Germany after the war:
It is significant that at the conferences of theologians which I visited there was much talk of demons. 'We looked Satan in the eye.' Such statements were almost uttered with enthusiasm. I listened to them for a long time. Finally I couldn't keep quiet any more. `Are you about to slip back into a magical view of the world?' I asked my friends. 'Why do you keep talking about demons? Why don't you say outright that you were political fools? Please let your Swiss colleague admonish you to adopt a more rational way of thinking' .
Barth, I believe, was fundamentally mistaken in his dismissal of the "world view" (or perhaps one should say "world narrative") of these theologians. Such a "world view", contrary to what many say, does not necessarily lead to an abrogation of responsibility. Indeed a biblical approach stresses that we are responsible before God for our actions even if we are driven by demons or "cannot do other otherwise". But the issue I wish to close on is not that of human responsibility but rather the extraordinary nature of our world. Barth chides the German...
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