English Demonologies

Nyhet

The Devil and Witchcraft in Elizabethan and Stuart Thought

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

719 kr

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English Demonologies presents the first comprehensive study of theoretical writings on witchcraft in England during the early modern period. It is also the first work to integrate the much wider understanding of the Devil – "demonology" – with the more specific, complex and troubled attempts by contemporary thinkers to develop theories of witchcraft.Ideas about the Devil pervaded Protestant thought in Elizabethan and Stuart England, emphasizing his role as an unseen spirit of temptation and falsehood, as well as the promoter of counterfeit religion. By examining the work of English writers on witchcraft from Reginald Scot and George Gifford in the 1580s to Francis Hutchinson and Richard Boulton in the early eighteenth century, this book demonstrates how conventional assumptions about the prince of darkness both underpinned and challenged contemporary conceptions of the crime.This book reveals the contours and continuities of English thought on the subject, including a commitment to the doctrine of divine providence as an explanation for suffering, an emphasis on the Devil's role as tempter and deceiver, and an awareness of the problems of finding evidence for preternatural crimes. It also identifies an important turn towards the empirical investigation of evil spirits in the later seventeenth century.English Demonologies is essential reading for all students and scholars studying the history of witchcraft and early modern religious thought.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-08-05
Mått156 x 234 x undefined mm
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieRoutledge Studies in the History of Witchcraft, Demonology and Magic
Antal sidor164
FörlagTaylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN9780367503659

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Chapter 1The Varieties of Demonic ExperienceChapter 2Satanic Temptation and DeceitChapter 3‘Our Enemy’s Power is in Our Father’s Hand’: The Devil under ProvidenceChapter 4The Devil in the WorldChapter 5Witchcraft and the Lying SpiritChapter 6Providence and the PactChapter 7Satan’s Traces: Evidence of Witchcraft and SpiritsChapter 8Witches’ FamiliarsChapter 9Conclusions: Demonology and English WitchcraftBibliography

In this terrific new book, Darren Oldridge seeks to give the devil his due. As he argues, the English devil has for too long been treated only in so far as he is the ominous shadow lurking behind witchcraft accusations. Here, though, Oldridge shows the extent to which the devil haunted the early modern protestant imagination. Spiritual tempter and purveyor of false religion to be sure, but Oldridge finds the devil also entangled in politics, prophecy, and in the debates about the ways of knowing of the period. This is an important study and deserves to be widely read.Richard Raiswell, University of Prince Edward IslandIn this masterful and beautifully written book, Darren Oldridge has produced one of the most detailed and insightful histories of the Devil in recent years. By allowing early modern thinking to set the agenda, he showcases the central role the Devil’s desire to tempt and deceive held in all aspects of Tudor and Stuart life. Similarly, he convincingly shows how ideas about English witchcraft fit within broader Protestant diabology, thus re-enforcing the Devil’s often overlooked role in this exceptional crime. In reading English Demonologies we are transported back in time into a world in which the Devil lurked at every corner but, most terrifyingly, also sat dormant within one’s own mind. Charlotte Millar, The University of Melbourne