Devil

This article is about the personification of the concept of evil. For the proper figure known in Abrahamic religions, see Satan.

A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions.[1] It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force.[2] Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of the devil can be summed up as 1) a principle of evil independent from God, 2) an aspect of God, 3) a created being turning evil (a fallen angel) or 4) a symbol of human evil.[3]: 23 

Each tradition, culture, and religion with a devil in its mythos offers a different lens on manifestations of evil.[4] The history of these perspectives intertwines with theology, mythology, psychiatry, art, and literature, developing independently within each of the traditions.[5] It occurs historically in many contexts and cultures, and is given many different names—Satan (Judaism), Lucifer (Christianity), Beelzebub (Judeo-Christian), Mephistopheles (German), Iblis (Islam)—and attributes: it is portrayed as blue, black, or red; it is portrayed as having horns on its head, and without horns, and so on.[6][7]

  1. ^ Russell 1987b, pp. 11, 34.
  2. ^ Russell 1987b, p. 34.
  3. ^ Russell, Jeffrey Burton (1990). Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-9718-6.
  4. ^ Russell 1987b, pp. 41–75.
  5. ^ Russell 1987b, pp. 44, 51.
  6. ^ Arp, Robert. The Devil and Philosophy: The Nature of His Game. Open Court, 2014. ISBN 978-0-8126-9880-0. pp. 30–50
  7. ^ Russell 1987b, p. 66.
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