Demonology Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Many philosophers throughout Christianity’s history have asserted the existence of intermediary beings or, in more familiar terms, angels and demons. According to Christianity, God, angels, demons, and human souls are all thought to... more

Many philosophers throughout Christianity’s history have asserted the existence of intermediary beings or, in more familiar terms, angels and demons. According to Christianity, God, angels, demons, and human souls are all thought to share a common nature, namely ‘spirit.’ This ‘spirit’ is thought to signify immateriality. Yet each is said to interact with the physical world. God, who is conceived of as omnipotent, can interact with the world simply at will. Human souls are paired with bodies which provides them the equipment to interact with the world. Angels receive special assistance from God by which they interact with the world. But demons, unlike angels, are not likely to benefit from any special assistance from God (unlike angels), nor are they themselves omnipotent (unlike God), nor are they paired with bodies (unlike humans). However, demons are believed to interact occasionally with this physical world. But how can an immaterial demon interact with a material world? Any appeals to the same explanations for how other immaterial beings (viz. humans, angels, or God) interact with the physical world will not do. I propose a solution that is consonant with their being purely immaterial creatures and yet does not rely on such an ad hoc manoeuvre. I argue that they actually never do interact with the physical world apart from their exploitation of human beings as proxies. I propose to explain their interaction in terms of their basic ability to cognitively interact with embodied souls. I call this sustaining affirmation of their immateriality along with this particular relationship they have with the world through human beings psychodynamic immaterialism.

Asceticism is founded on the possibility that human beings can profoundly transform themselves through training and discipline. In particular, asceticism in the Eastern monastic tradition is based on the assumption that individuals are... more

Asceticism is founded on the possibility that human beings can profoundly transform themselves through training and discipline. In particular, asceticism in the Eastern monastic tradition is based on the assumption that individuals are not slaves to the habitual and automatic but can be improved by ascetic practice and, with the cooperation of divine grace, transform their entire character and cultivate special powers and skills. Asceticism of the Mind explores the strategies that enabled Christian ascetics in the Egyptian, Gazan, and Sinaitic monastic traditions of late antiquity to cultivate a new form of existence. At the book's center is a particular model of ascetic discipline that involves a systematic effort to train the mind and purify attention. Drawing on contemporary cognitive and neuro-scientific research, this study underscores the beneficial potential and self-formative role of the monastic system of mental training, thereby confuting older views that emphasized the negative and repressive aspects of asceticism. At the same time, it sheds new light on the challenges that Christian ascetics encountered in their attempts to transform themselves, thereby lending insight into aspects of their daily lives that would otherwise remain inaccessible. Asceticism of the Mind brings rigorously historical and cognitive perspectives into conjunction across a range of themes, and in so doing opens up new ways of exploring ascet-icism and Christian monasticism. By working across the traditional divide between the humanities and the cognitive sciences, it offers new possibilities for a constructive dialogue across these fields.

Lupta Credinciosului - Un studiu neterminat despre Demonologie Aşa cum scrie şi în Cuvântul DOMNULUI Dumnezeu, în Sfintele Scripturi, oamenii s-au confruntat încă de la începutul creaţiei cu Satana. Acest vrăşmaş se împotriveşte lucrării... more

Lupta Credinciosului - Un studiu neterminat despre Demonologie
Aşa cum scrie şi în Cuvântul DOMNULUI Dumnezeu, în Sfintele Scripturi, oamenii s-au confruntat încă de la începutul creaţiei cu Satana. Acest vrăşmaş se împotriveşte lucrării lui Dumnezeu din care cel mai important momentan este omul. Cine este acest şarpe a cărui ocrotitor este Heruvimul 1 ce păzea grădina plantată de Dumnezeu în Eden ? În cartea facerii este scris că şarpele era mai şiret decât toate fiarele câmpului pe cari le făcuse Domnul Dumnezeu (Geneza 3:1). Aşadar este o specie dintre fiarele făcute de Dumnezeu. Cuvântul "şarpe" folosit aici nu se referă literar la forma unui animal care trăieşte în locuri mlăştinoase din apropierea râurilor, lacurilor şi bălţilor cum e şarpele ori broasca, ci cuvântul pentru şarpe în limba ebraică este ‫נחש‬ "NÂCHAŞ". Ca substantiv "NÂCHAŞ "înseamnă şarpe, ca verb "NÂCHAŞ" înseamnă 'A Păcăli' (şiret, viclean). Rădăcina Cuvântului "NÂCHAŞ" este în termenul Asirian "NEŞU" (înşela) iar rădăcina cuvântului "NEŞU" înseamnă "SUBSTITUIRE" sau "Schimbare a Formei". Şarpele avea capacitate să vorbească cu Eva şi să urmărească ce îi zicea Dumnezeu, şi avea după blestem capacitate să mănânce ţărână (cu ce nu se poate hrănii omul) şi să se târască;-Geneza 3:14; Şarpele are capacitatea să se reproducă, seminţiei şarpelui i s-a dat autoritate asupra călcâiului femeii care se ştie că e foarte sensibil la "gâdilat" (adică la himisme).-Geneza 3:15; Numele patronului (căpeteniei) şarpelui îl găsim în cartea lui Enoh. Este o luptă continuă în care credincioşii celui trimis de Dumnezeu au primit autoritate ‚peste şerpi şi peste scorpii, şi peste toată puterea vrăjmaşului".-Luca 10:19; Dacă la început din zilele lui Enoh până în zilele profetului Zaharia, Dumnezeu îşi alegea profeţi prin care să le vorbească oamenilor, din zilele lui Ioan Botezătorul, cei chemaţi de Dumnezeu ca lucrători sunt emisarii, de la apostoli la prooroci, bătrâni (preoţi ori prezbiteri), misionari (păstori ori episcopi). Lucrătorii pot ajuta chiar şi persoane necredincioase grav afectate, cum au făcut şi apostolii mustrând duhurile rele în Numele lui Iisus Ḥ ristos cu autoritate. În a doua carte a doctorului Luca, este relatat un astfel de caz. După ce în Filipi 2 s-a botezat o femeie credincioasă din cetatea Tiatirelor 3 , apostolul Pavel a fost invitat de cei din casa ei ca să facă o adunare de rugăciune. Astfel doctorul relatează: Dar odată, pe când ne duceam la rugăciune, ne-a întâmpinat o slujnică, care avea duh pitonicesc 4 şi care aducea mult câştig stăpânilor ei, ghicind. Aceasta, ţinându-se după Pavel şi după noi, striga, zicând: Aceşti oameni sunt robi ai Dumnezeului celui Preaînalt, care vă vestesc vouă calea mântuirii. Şi aceasta o făcea timp de multe zile. Iar Pavel mâniindu-se şi întorcându-se, a zis duhului: În numele lui Iisus Ḥ ristos îţi poruncesc să ieşi din ea. Şi în acel ceas a ieşit.-Fapte 16:16-18; 1 Heruvimul ocrotitor este descris ca păzitor al muntelui lui Dumnezeu în paralelă cu păzitorul Edenului, de către profetul Ezechiel în cap. 28:13-18. 2 în greacă: Φίλιπποι, localitatea tracică a izvoarelor Κρην δες ori "Chrenides", re-denumită după regele Filip II, tatăl lui ἱ Alexandru Makedon; 3 în greacă: Θυάτειρα ori "Thyatira" o cetate situată lângă localitatea turcă Akhisar "castelul alb", unde mai târziu s-a format biserica Apostolului Ioan cu acelaşi nume, la circa 80 km de marea Mediteraniană; 4 Πυθων = PUTHON (numele regiunii unde era faimosul oracol Delphi); un Piton, un şarpe, (aici numele zeităţii în analogie cu divinitatea), ori şarpele Python peste care are stăpânire zeitatea Olimpică: Apollo, 'AΠΌΛΛΩΝ-APÓLLŌN ori 'AΠΈΛΛΩΝ-APELLŌN

An overview of the historical accounts leading to the origination of the Shadow Selves during the Gaian Timelines that have been operating within the 9 lowest dimensions of the Nebadon physical universe ever since, when our higher... more

An overview of the historical accounts leading to the origination of the Shadow Selves during the Gaian Timelines that have been operating within the 9 lowest dimensions of the Nebadon physical universe ever since, when our higher dimensional aspects of the planet (Hyperborea, Polaris) were first invaded by the negative aliens via waging the Electric-Gaian Wars against us that proceeded their earlier Lyran-Orion warring exploits, has been presented. Accordingly, the Polarians became extinct at the end of these wars, also putting an end to the so-called Golden Age of humanity. At this time, the fragmented pieces of the Polarians as well as some of the Hyperboreans who fell during the same wars were taken to the Wesa System by the Black Hole Entities in order to be closely researched, leading to the reversal of our consciousness that gave rise to the calamity of Metatronic Consciousness Reversal System. And, this coincides with the timeline that through the Metatronic Reversal employing a distorted version of the Fibonacci Mathematical Sequencing, the Black Hole negative aliens with the aid of their captured Metatronic Collective captives and victims who were coerced to cooperate with them, they managed to devise a way to distort the Sextant Matrix with reference to changing the ratio of the quantum spin velocities of our personal as well as planetary magnetic to electric energies, effectively damaging the scheme of the ‘Cosmic Clock’ determining the scheme of our collective consciousness and that of our planetary logos (brain). Accordingly, they devised a distorted and False Time Matrix and installed it in our planetary Grid (as well as other planetary spheres subsequently collectively giving rise to the ‘Black Magic Grids’ ) that is referred to as the Yahweh Matrix, which is based upon a 10D False Tree of Life (such as the Sephiroth worshiped by the Jewish faith), instead of the usual 12D Grid or Universal Tree of Life or Time Matrix. Accordingly, the schematic of this system is based upon Vesica Pisces, a system of two intersecting spheres passing through the center of either other. This represents a closed circuit Bi-wave Energetic system, with the energies flowing from the victim to the aggressor only that is contrary to the usual Trinity Tri-Wave structure comprised of three spheres that exchange energies among one another within an open loop of free energies. In this respect, the God-SOURCE’s free energies are disseminated to all ITS solar organic sentient offspring whose quanta of energy sequentially spin about an invisible umbilical cord stretching between the God-SOURCE and all ITS offspring, torsionally vibrating within two equal intervals of expansion and contraction, with the God’s offspring sequentially expanding away (stretch) and then contracting back (shrink) towards the God-SOURCE, akin to a helical spring. In this respect, the offspring receives free energies from the God-SOURCE during the interval of expansion, followed by getting its expended energies of consciousness replenished upon its return (contraction) to the SOURCE. This way, the offspring, no matter where he-she has anchored its consciousness and at what point to the Neural Network of the God-SOURCE, remains connected to the SOURCE as well as maintains its propinquity to the God-SOURCE. However, the Metatronic Reversal System manages to ‘steal’ magnetic energies during the contracting phase to the SOURCE that represents its return to the SOURCE, thus gradually making a consciousness offspring become more distant from the SOURCE with each sequential intervals of vibration. This is why humanity has become so disconnected from their inner spirit and their higher dimensional aspects (HIGHERSELF) that represents their seed of consciousness that were planted by the SOURCE (or the its liaisons the Guardian-Founders) as ITS offspring, to spiritually nourish via finding enlightenment to grow, leading to their consciousness expansion, transmigration to higher dimensions of consciousness, and procure Ascension. And, indeed, the missing two spherical dimension represent this scheme of magnetic energy pilfering, with the energies being constantly directed towards the Orion Constellation and their Black Hole Storage Energy Moloch Tanks. Accordingly, this manuscript begins by providing an introductory narrative with respect to the first and second seedlings of humans giving rise to the first 4 root races. Then the consequences of the Electric-Gain Wars on the Gaian Timeline Matrix and the Fall of the Hyperboreans is discussed. Finally, the discourse ends with an account of a Conflict that occurred over Re-Seeding of Humanity. As for the account of formation of the Gaian Shadow or Phantom Body, the discussion has been carried out in a companion paper entitled “Modern Psychology 101: On the Historical Perspectives of the Origin of the ‘Shadow Selves’ - Part III: The Hyperborean Holocaust Timelines and the Formation of the Gaian Phantom Body.”

A detailed discussion is presented highlighting the most common characteristic of the reptilians and their hybrid cohorts. It is elucidated that the negative aliens are highly, violent, warring, separatist, disconnected, narcissistic,... more

A detailed discussion is presented highlighting the most common characteristic of the reptilians and their hybrid cohorts. It is elucidated that the negative aliens are highly, violent, warring, separatist, disconnected, narcissistic, selfish, egotistical, psychopathic and sociopathic form of beings with strong proclivity to anger and apathy for others who are utterly void of compassion, empathy, or love or emotions for that matter except anger. They also highly venerate physical strength above anything else and use it effectively to wage wars against others, conquer them and putting them in bondage for free labor. Being energetically parasitic-vampiric, not being able to sustain themselves against inevitable self-consumption, they use the same motivation and disposition with utter cunningness and deceptiveness in search of the conquest of solar organic sentient consciousness beings in order to siphon, harvest, and prey upon their energies as a food source in which they feel they need to keep them in a state of unconsciousness enslavement so they do not know what is happening to them. Being void of solar organic consciousness and unable to consciously vibrate, they are often very afraid of solar light or sunshine. They are soulless and void of any organic consciousness embodiment and are non-sentient beings unable to 'sense' the progression of time whatsoever. Thus, evolution is not a factor in their question of artificial existence nor is multidimensionality living multiple lives at the same time, being robots, cyborgs, automatons, and a form of dead energy. They exist as automatons surviving within a hive organization or society and they strictly adhere to a pyramidal hierarchical structure in which those deemed as stronger and superiors reside on progressively the higher pyramidal scale. They are also a highly envious, greedy, avaricious group of beings who perceive themselves as superior to others and entitled to pillage and plunder others' belongings and energetic resources including their consciousness energies upon which they are dependent to survive. This has made them essentially a glutinous lustful group of beings also prone to sloth, reaping the benefit of hard labor of the others. Also being such narcissists, self-supremacists, and elitists, they have digressed to believe in racial and other forms of prejudices including the repugnant dogma of eugenics. Finally, a most distasteful trait that they are associated with is that of delusional sense of male-supremacy giving rise to a patriarchal domination dogma of existence as well as misogyny, viewing the female as weak and "worthless" unlike their males as the epitome of physical strength, forever in search of hunting-gathering, war and conquest, as a means for distinction and veneration.

The Bamiléké of Cameroon have long believed that after the corpses of their ancestors have rotted they can be exhumed and the skulls used to communicate with the spirits of the dead, as well as their godhead, to receive spiritual... more

The Bamiléké of Cameroon have long believed that after the corpses of their ancestors have rotted they can be exhumed and the skulls used to communicate with the spirits of the dead, as well as their godhead, to receive spiritual guidance. The religious rite, which has necromancy at its fulcrum, is of ancient origin and the Bamiléké have practiced it for thousands of years. Urbanisation has impinged upon the Skull Cult as it is forbidden to move ancestral skulls, which must at all times remain in the natal village of the deceased. Nevertheless, city-dwellers who are beset by misfortune may travel to the birth places of their ancestors to honour them and perform rites to propitiate them. However, although urbanisation has adversely affected the practice, it is the Catholic Church that has most infringed upon the Skull Cult. Due to pressure from the officiants of the local Catholic Church, which has labelled the skull cult 'barbaric' and even Satanic.

This collection of essays, in both English and German, focuses on the question of “evil” in religious traditions that may be described as “monotheistic” or for which at least the rule of one main god over all other deities and powers is a... more

This collection of essays, in both English and German, focuses on the question of “evil” in religious traditions that may be described as “monotheistic” or for which at least the rule of one main god over all other deities and powers is a key concern. The emphasis of this volume moves from the Hebrew scriptures to nascent Judaism and Christianity, and concludes with attention to the reception of traditions in Targumic literature and medieval legends. The articles in this volume demonstrate the wide variety of ways in which “evil” manifested itself in the literature of ancient Judaism and Christianity. Authors address continuities, innovations, and divergences within these different but related traditions, with questions about the location of evil externally, as a demon or a devil, or internally, as the human capacity for evil. Additionally, when dualism is formative for constructions of evil in Jewish and Christian literature, care is taken to develop forms in which evil is ultimately subordinated to God and the good.

This study aims to systematize St. Basil the Great's view of the evil and set it into the larger framework covering similar concerns within the field of religious studies. The permanent reference to the broader scope of this research... more

This study aims to systematize St. Basil the Great's view of the evil and set it into the larger framework covering similar concerns within the field of religious studies. The permanent reference to the broader scope of this research subject matter has the advantage of highlighting more suitably the merits of Basil's thinking pattern. The metaphysical, personal and moral aspects of the evil are dwelt upon, and projected on the background of the intellectual tensions of the time, while their benchmark value for the Eastern Christianity is emphasized up until today. From the point of view of the history of religions, understanding Basils's view of the evil is an endeavour that is both necessary and useful to its own inherent academic discourse.

Purity rules and discourses are present in all three Abrahamic religions, serving as a medium in structuring their moral, social and ritual worlds and in constructing the holiness of the religious community, religious spaces and the... more

Purity rules and discourses are present in all three Abrahamic religions, serving as a medium in structuring their moral, social and ritual worlds and in constructing the holiness of the religious community, religious spaces and the individual body. Purity and defilement govern the management of the individual body versus the community: in eating, defecation, illness, sexual relations, birth and death, in attitudes towards foreigners and heretics, and in the understanding of the demonic. However, ritual and moral purity were used in different ways by the various traditions. Thus while in Judaism and Islam ritual purity is the main medium, in Christianity ritual purity is typically overlaid by moral purity discourse

Il volume è il risultato di una ricerca sull’atteggiamento di medici e filosofi di fronte alla peste, dalle prime reazioni nel ‘300 fino al maturo ‘400, con particolare attenzione all’umanesimo fiorentino e alla figura di Marsilio Ficino.... more

Il volume è il risultato di una ricerca sull’atteggiamento di medici e filosofi di fronte alla peste, dalle prime reazioni nel ‘300 fino al maturo ‘400, con particolare attenzione all’umanesimo fiorentino e alla figura di Marsilio Ficino. Si è voluto mostrare come l’avvento del morbo abbia profondamente inciso sulla produzione della letteratura filosofica, accelerando l’osmosi tra i saperi e le tendenze culturali, calamitando l’attenzione di molti sull’urgenza medica. La trattazione si concentra sulle opere di Marsilio Ficino, soprattutto sul Consilio contro la pestilentia, pubblicato per la prima volta a Firenze nel 1481 e da allora testo di riferimento per la tradizione posteriore. Attraverso l’analisi delle fonti e della fortuna di quest’opera si possono rileggere le questioni fondamentali che sono al centro della letteratura medico-filosofica contro la peste. In Appendice si presenta un’edizione accompagnata da alcune annotazioni critiche, con un Glossario essenziale di termini notevoli.

Though it focuses partly on dreams and the occult, the ulterior subject of Emerson’s “Demonology”—published in the North American Review in 1877, almost forty years after it was first delivered in lecture form—is not just contradiction,... more

Though it focuses partly on dreams and the occult, the ulterior subject of Emerson’s “Demonology”—published in the North American Review in 1877, almost forty years after it was first delivered in lecture form—is not just contradiction, but the arcane inversions, doublings, and self-dismantlings of transcendentalism itself. Between many of Emerson’s pronouncements falls this shadow of Demonology, which I treat as a key aspect of his theories and essays of experience—that is, those in which his contradictions are preeminent, unsettling, and thematic. If Emerson’s transcendental pantheism is suffused with, or structured by, contradiction and doubling, “Demonology” is the essay that most fitfully “performs” those inversions; in which the double emerges as twin and negative; and in which polar opposites become both coterminous and sequential in any direction (and therefore almost never linear in exposition).
Both as the essay and concept I focus on in this article, Demonology is not a tangent or coda to Emerson’s work, but the cumulative residue of an attempt to codify that which resists his overarching theory that all forces, processes and attributes of nature are consistent, explicable, rational, and ultimately commensurate. Both its problematic provenance as an essay revised while Emerson suffered from failing mental acuity, and the way its tenets resist formalization, have led most scholars to treat “Demonology,” as an essay and concept, either as a digression or embarrassment. Critics of the day, however, seemed to realize that a protean Demonology was one of the definitive components of Emerson’s pantheism. I reassess “Demonology”—not just in spite of its inchoate status and troubled provenance, but in part because of it—as an overlooked encapsulation of many of Emerson’s ulterior tenets and a capstone of his metaphysics. In Lacanian terms, the contradictory or seemingly anomalous elements of “Demonology” represent the necessary remainders or gaps in his work that allow Emerson to address nature, a scenario complicated by the fact that the subject of these remainders is remainders. In other words, the subject of the essay is, implicitly, the cause of its own fragmentary nature. In never entirely stable ways, the demonological for Emerson represents specific forces within nature, but is also immanent to the system of nature.
I also attempt to counter the lingering perception of Emerson as both a rationalist and idealist. No consistent transcendentalism generates or allows for Emerson’s inconsistent pronouncements, because the inconsistency precedes the pronouncements at the level of ontology. A negation of the negation, Emerson’s Demonology does not emerge in the register of symbolic spiritual transcendence, nor as part of an uplifting imaginary vision, but as a dark, racialized, feminized, and materialized “real” limit on established conventions. Emerson’s exposition of nature’s Demonology, both in the eponymous essay and throughout his writings, thereby corroborates some poststructuralist as well as transcendental postulates. Emerson’s repeated emphasis on limitation, especially the limits of reason, bear some surprising affinities with Slavoj Žižek’s formulation of the Lacanian Real, which is why Žižek offers a useful interpretative language for approaching “Demonology” in particular.

Настоящая книга является первым монографическим опытом системати- зации материалов по традиционному мировоззрению сибирских татар XX— XXI вв. Работа состоит из двух частей — серии статей по духовной культуре изучаемой этнической общности... more

Настоящая книга является первым монографическим опытом системати-
зации материалов по традиционному мировоззрению сибирских татар XX—
XXI вв. Работа состоит из двух частей — серии статей по духовной культуре
изучаемой этнической общности и словарных статей, посвященных тем или
иным мифологическим образам, явлениям или предметам, имеющим отноше-
ние к традиционному мировоззрению тюркоязычного населения Западной
Сибири.
Книга адресуется археологам, этнографам, историкам, искусствоведам,
религиоведам, краеведам, а также всем, кто интересуется проблемами духов-
ной культуры народов России.
The present book is the first monograph which systematizes the data on the traditional
world picture of the Siberian Tatars of XX—XXI centuries. The monograph
consists of two parts — a series of articles about the spiritual culture of the
ethnic entity under study and some dictionary entries devoted to various mythological
images, phenomena, and objects related to the traditional world picture of the
Turkic — speaking population of Western Siberia.
For archeologists, ethnographers, art, religion and region researchers and anyone
interested in the matter of spiritual culture of the peoples of Russia.

El pacto diabólico es uno de los principales relatos del mito de la brujería, un aspecto esencial de su tratamiento teológico, literario y didáctico, es la descripción de la fórmula que sirve para acordar los términos del fabuloso... more

El pacto diabólico es uno de los principales relatos del mito de la brujería, un aspecto esencial de su tratamiento teológico, literario y didáctico, es la descripción de la fórmula que sirve para acordar los términos del fabuloso contrato. Textos de diversa índole reproducen las frases del pacto, sus características pueden clasificarse y explicarse a través del tono personal que se utiliza, las cláusulas del contrato, los personajes involucrados, los intereses disímbolos y los resultados previsibles. En el presente trabajo se explica el tópico y se propone una clasificación general.

In the 1690s, a series of enthusiastic episodes rocked Pietist circles. Scholars have often pointed to Pietism's "heart religion" to explain these events. This essay demonstrates, however, that such experiences belonged to an older,... more

In the 1690s, a series of enthusiastic episodes rocked Pietist circles. Scholars have often pointed to Pietism's "heart religion" to explain these events. This essay demonstrates, however, that such experiences belonged to an older, firmly established cultural pattern in an Early Modern Europe in which a magical world view prevailed. Martin draws on dozens of texts, most previously overlooked by historians of Pietism, that document the continuity of this tradition from the sixteenth century into the Pietist era . She traces the integration of ecstatic events into Pietist conventicles and shows how Pietists adapted and transformed these older patterns to fit the new context of Pietism.

This is an open call to invite papers for the Special Issue of "Religions", which deals with witchcraft, demonology and magic in their interactions with popular and institutional religion (preaching, inquisition, demonology, the role of... more

This is an open call to invite papers for the Special Issue of "Religions", which deals with witchcraft, demonology and magic in their interactions with popular and institutional religion (preaching, inquisition, demonology, the role of monks and priests in performing occult sciences and ritual magic; religious images and elements, such as the sacramental bread, in witchcraft and magic rituals; ceremonial magic and Sabbat as an inversion of Catholic rituals).

'Third wave' neo-charismatic evangelical discourses of spiritual warfare envision the world as caught within a struggle between good and evil, in which demonic forces play an active role in shaping the lives of individuals, institutions,... more

'Third wave' neo-charismatic evangelical discourses of spiritual warfare envision the world as caught within a struggle between good and evil, in which demonic forces play an active role in shaping the lives of individuals, institutions, and nations. In contemporary American spiritual warfare discourse one demonic spirit has gained particular notoriety: the Jezebel spirit. Through a close reading of American spiritual warfare manuals, this article explores constructions of the Jezebel spirit and her place in third wave demonology. Constructed as a spiritual force reigning over an errant United States, the figure of Jezebel facilitates a discursive conflation of personal and social bodies in which the 'present absences' of 'deviant' (gendered, sexualised, racialised) bodies within the nation become figured as threatening to both national and spiritual survival. Drawing on poststructuralist, postcolonial, and queer theory, the article unpacks how Jezebel is constructed as a figure of feminised absence and multiplicity, whose 'illegitimate' possession of 'deviant' places and persons renders them as territories of absence that must be restored to normative presence through the reinscription of God's will.

Do Scholars Still Remember Satan? The following paper aims to respond to some questions raised by L. Misiarczyk in his paper „Opętania i egzorcyzmy – nowe wyzwania dla teologii XXI wieku,” Studia Nauk Teologicznych PAN 9 (2014) 247-257.... more

Do Scholars Still Remember Satan?
The following paper aims to respond to some questions raised by L. Misiarczyk in his paper „Opętania i egzorcyzmy – nowe wyzwania dla teologii XXI wieku,” Studia Nauk Teologicznych PAN 9 (2014) 247-257. Author refers first an opinion concerning shortage of studies about demonology and exorcisms in New Testament within Polish theological literature. The second part contains an analysis of the behavior of possessed people as described in New Testament accounts. Third part of the study tries to answer a question why the Gospel of John and Paul’s Letters do not mention demoniac possessions and exorcisms. Fourth chapter attempts to describe biblical anthropology that could help to understand whether biblical authors distinguished possessions from mental or physical maladies. Fifth and concluding part discusses suggestion of three possible ways of structuring the texts describing demons. While refuting some theses expressed by L. Misiarczyk, the paper underlines a number of valuable assets and topics presented by the author, that yet need to be discussed and reviewed.

It is commonly assumed that for Thomas Aquinas, intentionality (the characteristic of mental states such that they are “about” an object) has to do merely with mental representation (the characteristic of a mental state such that it is... more

It is commonly assumed that for Thomas Aquinas, intentionality (the characteristic of mental states such that they are “about” an object) has to do merely with mental representation (the characteristic of a mental state such that it is “like” an object). I contend, however, that this account ignores the role of attention, in the everyday sense of actively focusing on or taking interest in something. In order to uncover Aquinas's view of how attention factors into intentionality, this chapter focuses on Aquinas treatment of the problem of mind-reading in "De Malo" 16.8. There, under the heading of “whether the demons cognize our thoughts," he raises a version of what I will call the “mind-reading question”: namely, if Person A could directly observe the inner workings of Person B’s mind, would A be able to see what B is thinking about, i.e., read B’s mind? His answer reveals the role of attention in determining the intentional direction of a thought. This text also offers an interesting approach to navigating contemporary questions about “reading minds” through neuroimaging, and shows that he distinguishes between cognition as a certain metaphysical reality in a cognitive power that is observable "from the outside", vs. as a psychological phenomenon with a subjective perspective that can only be experienced "from the inside."

The sixteenth century was marked by a period of significant change from the Renaissance, Age of Discovery, and the Reformation that created instability and anxiety. Together with the popularity of prints and superstitious beliefs fuelled... more

The sixteenth century was marked by a period of significant change from the Renaissance, Age of Discovery, and the Reformation that created instability and anxiety. Together with the popularity of prints and superstitious beliefs fuelled by repeated war and death from disease and famine, sixteenth-century Germany was ripe for iconography of hybrid and shape-shifting creatures that embodied curiosity and fear.

Masurian folk beliefs (East Prussia).