The Little Friar

I've gone without saying much here about Milton's Paradise Lost . I first read Milton as a senior in high school.  And, I have to admit, as a literary character, I was impressed with Milton's depiction of Satan.  Not heavily biblical, mind you, but he casts a long shadow down the literary tradition.  So any talk about evil and the demonic has to deal with this tradition.  Some of  our greatest modern characters (e.g. Melville's Ahab) are in fact precisely reincarnations of Milton's Satan.  But my own favorite  contemporary incarnation of Milton's Satan is found not in literature, but in the 1997 film Devil's Advocate .   The Satan-character in this film (a lawyer named "John Milton") is modelled very closely on  Paradise Lost , and he is brilliantly brought to life by Al Pacino.  Like Milton's Satan, this lawyer is above all a rhetorician -- he loves to make long, egocentric speeches.  He's self-important and long-winded about his s...

Everything I wrote yesterday about the demonic and Satan sounds all well and good -- odd, for sure, in that I take spiritual warfare  seriously, but do so only as a way of re-enchanting and reconnecting the physical with the spiritual.  And, let's admit it:  That's different in lots of Christian circles these days.  But , even if it all sounds oddly reasonable, there's still a looming question:   It's all well and good to align "the principalities and powers" with human (generally political) power structures, but how does this account fit with the gospel narratives where Jesus appears to encounter evil spirits inside of people? In keeping my sketchy-note theme, let me lay out some ideas here.  This isn't meant to be a full-blown book-length theology of the demonic or spiritual warfare.  (I'm tempted to pull together lots of different, scattered posts here into just such a work.  If you think it'll sell, let me know.  I still may do it.) ...

Let me continue my thoughts on the trinitarian re-enchantment of the world, miracles and the demonic with some notes -- I'm sure these will be more scattered! -- on the Satan.  Throughout  the Bible, the satan is portrayed as being a creature ordained and directed by God, fulfilling his function of being an adversary.  In fact, the Hebrew word  satan  means "adversary", and in its earlier usage it carries the definite article ("the satan", or "the adversary").  Satan is portrayed as a courtroom prosecutor, and God is the judge; Satan looks for evidence against God's people (e.g. Job 1-2), and God even lets him use entrapment and sting operations.  Over time, however, the portrayal of Satan shifts from being God's servant to being God's enemy, as Satan takes his efforts to accuse God's people further, breaking the boundaries that God puts on him (think for example of Daniel 10).  By the time we get to the NT, Satan is God's enemy, ye...

Throughout the Bible, the satan is portrayed as being a creature ordained and directed by God, fulfilling his function of being an adversary.  In fact, the Hebrew word  satan  means "adversary", and in its earlier usage it carries the definite article ("the satan", or "the adversary").  Satan is portrayed as a courtroom prosecutor, and God is the judge; Satan looks for evidence against God's people (e.g., Job), and God even lets him use entrapment and sting operations.  Over time, however, the portrayal of Satan shifts from being God's servant to being God's enemy, as Satan takes his efforts to accuse God's people further, breaking the boundaries that God puts on him.  By the time we get to the NT, Satan is God's enemy, yet unwittingly or unwillingly continues to serve God's purposes by doing what he always does: entrapping and accusing people.  Satan's role, I think, is as God's servant, also seeing Satan's fall as the ...