Demonic History

Author : Kirk Wetters
Publisher : Northwestern University Press
ISBN 13 : 0810129760
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Demonic History written by Kirk Wetters and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2014-08-31 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this ambitious book, Kirk Wetters traces the genealogy of the demonic in German literature from its imbrications in Goethe to its varying legacies in the work of essential authors, both canonical and less well known, such as Gundolf, Spengler, Benjamin, Lukács, and Doderer. Wetters focuses especially on the philological and metaphorological resonances of the demonic from its core formations through its appropriations in the tumultuous twentieth century. Propelled by equal parts theoretical and historical acumen, Wetters explores the ways in which the question of the demonic has been employed to multiple theoretical, literary, and historico-political ends. He thereby produces an intellectual history that will be consequential both to scholars of German literature and to comparatists.

Author : Mark R. E. Meulenbeld
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824838459
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Demonic Warfare written by Mark R. E. Meulenbeld and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2015-01-31 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revealing the fundamental continuities that exist between vernacular fiction and exorcist, martial rituals in the vernacular language, Mark Meulenbeld argues that a specific type of Daoist exorcism helped shape vernacular novels in the late Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Focusing on the once famous novel Fengshen yanyi ("Canonization of the Gods"), the author maps out the general ritual structure and divine protagonists that it borrows from much older systems of Daoist exorcism. By exploring how the novel reflects the specific concerns of communities associated with Fengshen yanyi and its ideology, Meulenbeld is able to reconstruct the cultural sphere in which Daoist exorcist rituals informed late imperial "novels." He first looks at temple networks and their religious festivals. Organized by local communities for territorial protection, these networks featured martial narratives about the powerful and heroic deeds of the gods. He then shows that it is by means of dramatic practices like ritual, theatre, and temple processions that divine acts were embodied and brought to life. Much attention is given to local militias who embodied "demon soldiers" as part of their defensive strategies. Various Ming emperors actively sought the support of these local religious networks and even continued to invite Daoist ritualists so as to efficiently marshal the forces of local gods with their local demon soldiers into the official, imperial reserves of military power. This unusual book establishes once and for all the importance of understanding the idealized realities of literary texts within a larger context of cultural practice and socio-political history. Of particular importance is the ongoing dialog with religious ideology that informs these different discourses. Meulenbeld's book makes a convincing case for the need to debunk the retrospective reading of China through the modern, secular Western categories of "literature," "society," and "politics." He shows that this disregard of religious dynamics has distorted our understanding of China and that "religion" cannot be conveniently isolated from scholarly analysis.

Author : Ed Simon
Publisher : Abrams
ISBN 13 : 164700389X
Total Pages : 779 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pandemonium written by Ed Simon and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 779 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compendium celebrating the art of hell and its minions Pandemonium: The Illustrated History of Demonology presents—for the first time—Satan’s family tree, providing a history and analysis of his fellow fallen angels from Asmodeus to Ziminiar. Throughout the book, there are short entries on individual demons, but Pandemonium is more than just a visual encyclopedia. It also focuses on the influence of figures like Beelzebub, Azazel, Lilith, and Moloch on Western religion, literature, and art. Ranging from the earliest scriptural references to demons through the contemporary era, when the devils took on a subtler form, Pandemonium functions as a compendium of Lucifer’s subjects, from Dante’s The Divine Comedy to John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and all the points in between. Containing rarely seen illustrations of very old treatises on demonology, as well as more well-known works by the great masters of Western painting, this book celebrates the art of hell like never before.

Author : Anita Croy
Publisher : The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN 13 : 1725346508
Total Pages : 48 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Demonic Possessions in History written by Anita Croy and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2019-07-15 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Possession by a malevolent spirit sounds like a horrific nightmare or bizarre fiction, but history has certainly shown that it isn't such a far-fetched concept. The fear of these possessions stems from Christianity and other religions. They had treacherous repercussions, such as witch hunts in Europe and the United States, and attempted exorcisms. Murderers even used the guise of demonic possession as an excuse for their crimes. Readers poring through these engrossing, extensive accounts can decide for themselves what may have a ring of truth to it.

Author : Jimena Canales
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691241686
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Bedeviled written by Jimena Canales and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-09 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How scientists through the ages have conducted thought experiments using imaginary entities—demons—to test the laws of nature and push the frontiers of what is possible Science may be known for banishing the demons of superstition from the modern world. Yet just as the demon-haunted world was being exorcized by the enlightening power of reason, a new kind of demon mischievously materialized in the scientific imagination itself. Scientists began to employ hypothetical beings to perform certain roles in thought experiments—experiments that can only be done in the imagination—and these impish assistants helped scientists achieve major breakthroughs that pushed forward the frontiers of science and technology. Spanning four centuries of discovery—from René Descartes, whose demon could hijack sensorial reality, to James Clerk Maxwell, whose molecular-sized demon deftly broke the second law of thermodynamics, to Darwin, Einstein, Feynman, and beyond—Jimena Canales tells a shadow history of science and the demons that bedevil it. She reveals how the greatest scientific thinkers used demons to explore problems, test the limits of what is possible, and better understand nature. Their imaginary familiars helped unlock the secrets of entropy, heredity, relativity, quantum mechanics, and other scientific wonders—and continue to inspire breakthroughs in the realms of computer science, artificial intelligence, and economics today. The world may no longer be haunted as it once was, but the demons of the scientific imagination are alive and well, continuing to play a vital role in scientists' efforts to explore the unknown and make the impossible real.

Author : Elaine Pagels
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0679731180
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Origin of Satan written by Elaine Pagels and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1996-04-30 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the National Book Award-winning and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of The Gnostic Gospels comes a dramatic interpretation of Satan and his role on the Christian tradition. "Arresting...brilliant...this book illuminates the angels with which we must wrestle to come to the truth of our bedeviling spritual problems." —The Boston Globe With magisterial learning and the elan of a born storyteller, Pagels turns Satan’s story into an audacious exploration of Christianity’s shadow side, in which the gospel of love gives way to irrational hatreds that continue to haunt Christians and non-Christians alike.

Author : David Frankfurter
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691186979
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Evil Incarnate written by David Frankfurter and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1980s, America was gripped by widespread panics about Satanic cults. Conspiracy theories abounded about groups who were allegedly abusing children in day-care centers, impregnating girls for infant sacrifice, brainwashing adults, and even controlling the highest levels of government. As historian of religions David Frankfurter listened to these sinister theories, it occurred to him how strikingly similar they were to those that swept parts of the early Christian world, early modern Europe, and postcolonial Africa. He began to investigate the social and psychological patterns that give rise to these myths. Thus was born Evil Incarnate, a riveting analysis of the mythology of evilconspiracy. The first work to provide an in-depth analysis of the topic, the book uses anthropology, the history of religion, sociology, and psychoanalytic theory, to answer the questions "What causes people collectively to envision evil and seek to exterminate it?" and "Why does the representation of evil recur in such typical patterns?" Frankfurter guides the reader through such diverse subjects as witch-hunting, the origins of demonology, cannibalism, and the rumors of Jewish ritual murder, demonstrating how societies have long expanded upon their fears of such atrocities to address a collective anxiety. Thus, he maintains, panics over modern-day infant sacrifice are really not so different from rumors about early Christians engaging in infant feasts during the second and third centuries in Rome. In Evil Incarnate, Frankfurter deepens historical awareness that stories of Satanic atrocities are both inventions of the mind and perennial phenomena, not authentic criminal events. True evil, as he so artfully demonstrates, is not something organized and corrupting, but rather a social construction that inspires people to brutal acts in the name of moral order.

Author : Theresa Bane
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786488948
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures written by Theresa Bane and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exhaustive volume catalogs nearly three thousand demons in the mythologies and lore of virtually every ancient society and most religions. From Aamon, the demon of life and reproduction with the head of a serpent and the body of a wolf in Christian demonology, to Zu, the half-man, half-bird personification of the southern wind and thunder clouds in Sumero-Akkadian mythology, entries offer descriptions of each demon's origins, appearance and cultural significance. Also included are descriptions of the demonic and diabolical members making up the hierarchy of Hell and the numerous species of demons that, according to various folklores, mythologies, and religions, populate the earth and plague mankind. Very thoroughly indexed.

Author : Darren Oldridge
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199580995
Total Pages : 145 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Devil: A Very Short Introduction written by Darren Oldridge and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-31 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Devil has fascinated writers and theologians since the time of the New Testament, and inspired many dramatic and haunting works of art. Today he remains a potent image in popular culture. The Devil: A Very Short Introduction presents an introduction to the Christian Devil through the history of ideas and the lives of real people.

Author : Paul Davies
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0241309603
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Demon in the Machine written by Paul Davies and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2019-01-31 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A gripping new drama in science ... if you want to understand how the concept of life is changing, read this' Professor Andrew Briggs, University of Oxford When Darwin set out to explain the origin of species, he made no attempt to answer the deeper question: what is life? For generations, scientists have struggled to make sense of this fundamental question. Life really does look like magic: even a humble bacterium accomplishes things so dazzling that no human engineer can match it. And yet, huge advances in molecular biology over the past few decades have served only to deepen the mystery. So can life be explained by known physics and chemistry, or do we need something fundamentally new? In this penetrating and wide-ranging new analysis, world-renowned physicist and science communicator Paul Davies searches for answers in a field so new and fast-moving that it lacks a name, a domain where computing, chemistry, quantum physics and nanotechnology intersect. At the heart of these diverse fields, Davies explains, is the concept of information: a quantity with the power to unify biology with physics, transform technology and medicine, and even to illuminate the age-old question of whether we are alone in the universe. From life's murky origins to the microscopic engines that run the cells of our bodies, The Demon in the Machine is a breath-taking journey across the landscape of physics, biology, logic and computing. Weaving together cancer and consciousness, two-headed worms and bird navigation, Davies reveals how biological organisms garner and process information to conjure order out of chaos, opening a window on the secret of life itself.