Description
Book SynopsisSatan is both a revealing study of the compelling figure of the Devil and an imaginative and persuasive inquiry into the forces that shape a concept and ensure its survival.
Trade ReviewDrawing extensively on earlier scholarly literature, as well as his own original research in complex source materials, Russell has offered a coherent account of the development of a tradition in Christian thought that should be of great interest to specialists and nonspecialists alike. Although Russell would be the very last to claim that he can draw out leviathan with a hook, he has competently and diligently drawn out an image of leviathan that takes a respectable place in the literature of early church history.
* American Historical Review *
Russell has complete mastery of his material, and the book's sweep is grand: a tour of the first five centuries of Christian intellectual history with the spotlight on the villain instead of the hero.... Satan is a valuable introduction to the theological portion of the Western Devil tradition.
* Speculum *
Table of ContentsPreface
1. The Devil
2. The Apostolic Fathers
3. The Apologetic Fathers and the Gnostics
4. Human Sin and Redemption: Irenaeus and Tertullian
5. Mercy and Damnation: The Alexandrians
6. Dualism and the Desert
7. Satan and Saint Augustine
8. Conclusion: Satan Today
Essay on the Sources
Bibliography
Index
