Christian demonology
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Christian demonology is the study of demons from a Christian point of view. It is primarily based on the Bible (Old Testament and New Testament), the exegesis of these scriptures, the scriptures of early Christian philosophers and hermits, tradition, and legends incorporated from other beliefs.
One relatively recent example of Christian demonology is the book War On The Saints, by Jessie Penn-Lewis, which purports to reveal what demons are, how they work at gaining possession, how to recognize their workings, how to oppose them, and how to free oneself and others from demon possession.
Sexuality of demons
(See main article Sexuality in Christian demonology)
Most theologians agreed that demons acted first as succubae to collect sperm from men and then as incubi to put it into a woman's vagina. But as many of them agreed also in the fact that demons' bodies were icy, they reached the conclusion that the frozen sperm taken first from a man could not have generative qualities. Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas wrote that demons acted in this way but could fecundate women. Ulrich Molitor and Nicholas Remy disagreed in the fact that women could be impregnated; besides, Remy thought that a woman could never be fecundated by another being than a man. Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger (authors of the Malleus Maleficarum) adopted again an intermediate position; they wrote that demons acted first as succubae and then as incubi, but added the possibility that incubi could receive semen from succubae, but they considered that this sperm could not fecundate women.
Peter of Paluda and Martin of Arles among others supported the idea that demons could take sperm from dead men and impregnate women. Some demonologists thought that demons could take semen from dying or recently deceased men, and thus dead men should be buried as soon as possible to avoid it.
See also
- Christian angelology
- Classification of demons
- Deliverance ministry
- Demonic possession
- Demons and animals
- Exorcism
- Fall of man
- Grimoire
- Necromancy
- Richalmus
- Seven princes of Hell
- Unclean spirit
