Customer Reviews

History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil

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Very informative. I am surprized this book is not more popular, it should be. It is packed with information that is surprizing to most readers. Very well researched.

This book was originally published in 1900. Its author, Paul Carus, was a German professor whose liberal ideas about religion offended church authorities in Germany, making it difficult for him to obtain publication there. He came to the United States and published a number of very interesting books on a variety of religious, historical, and philosophical topics.

This book is as much a history of comparative religion as it is a history of the devil. We learn a good deal about Eastern religions and their basic doctrines, along with how the concept of evil works in those faiths. While the book takes a far-reaching perspective, it is not comprehensive. Little is said about indigenous African and Native American religions, for example. Dr. Carus is also sensitive to the ways in which the concept of Satan has been used by religious authorities to persecute "witches" and "heretics" and the chapters on these subjects, while understated, were painful to read.

In the end, Dr. Carus takes an almost Jungian perspective, seeing evil and its personification in the Devil as a necessary part of human existence. He tends toward monism, suggesting that Satan is a shadow part of God. This book was written prior to the great evils of the Twentieth Century, and it would have been interesting to see how knowledge of say, Hitler's evil might have changed Dr. Carus's analysis or perspective.

I found the book highly enjoyable and readable. Particularly interesting are the many compelling illustrations reproduced throughout the book in vivid detail.

I picked this book up at Tower Books and Records in 1994,in Fresno, California. They had all this esoteric stuff in that store. What a find! An historical overview of the Devil, from all perspectives, from all religious angles. With this book, and Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer's SATAN, what more could you ask for?! Heaven on earth ... uh, rather Hell on earth, in a heavenly fashion.

Buy this book. Then pick up a copy of Carus' VENUS, An Archaelogical Study of Woman. And stand in awe.