Devil
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist."[...] --Charles Baudelaire "The Devil is part of our experience. Our generation has seen enough of it for the message to be taken extremely seriously. Evil, I contend, is not contingent, it not the absence, or deformation, or the subversion of virtue (or whatever else we may think of as its opposite), but a stubborn and unredeemable fact"--Leszek Kołakowski |
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The Devil is a title given to the supernatural entity, who, in Christianity, Islam, and other religions, is a powerful, evil entity and the tempter of humankind. In conservative Christianity, God and the Devil are usually portrayed as fighting over the souls of humans, with the Devil seeking to lure people away from God and into hell. The Devil commands a force of lesser evil spirits, commonly known as demons.
The Devil is commonly associated with heretics, infidels, and other unbelievers. The Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) does not assign this level of personification to a devil, but rather identifies all good and evil as originating in the will of God. In humour, concept of something as evil as Satan is often mocked.
This entity is commonly referred to by a variety of names, including Angra Mainyu, Satan, Asmodai, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Belial, or Iblis. Many other religions have a trickster or tempter figure that is similar to the Devil. Modern conceptions of the Devil include the concept that it symbolizes humans' own lower nature or sinfulness.
In painting
- Michael Pacher's panel painting The Devil Presenting St Augustine With The Book Of Vices
Namesakes
- The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce
- Devil's Trill sonata by Giuseppe Tartini
See also
- Devil in popular culture
- The devil in fiction
- Devil's music
- Devil worship
- Diablerie
- Faust
- Hierarchy of devils
- Names of the demons
- Hell, Hades, Underworld
- Lawsuits against the Devil
- Number of the Beast
- Deal with the Devil
- Satanism
