Routledge History of the Devil in the Western Tradition

Richard Raiswell is Professor of History at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada. He has published works on demon possession, proof in witchcraft cases, rhetoric and demonism, and demonism and colonialism. His most recent book is The Medieval Devil: A Reader (trans. and ed. with David Winter, 2022).Michelle D. Brock is Professor of History at Washington and Lee University, USA. She has published works on witchcraft and demonology, religious identity, and women and gender in early modern Scotland. Her most recent book is Plagues of the Heart: Crisis and Covenanting in a Seventeenth-Century Scottish Town (2024).David R. Winter is Professor of History at Brandon University, Canada. His books include The Llanthony Stories (2021) and The Medieval Devil: A Reader (trans. and ed. with Richard Raiswell 2022). He is currently working on a translation of 16th-century Icelandic bishop Oddur Einarsson’s Descriptio qualiscunque Islandiae.

• Introduction1: Satan in Biblical LiteratureJustin Jeffcoat Schedtler2: The Myth of the Devil in the Early ChurchArchie T. Wright3: Experiences of Evil: The Devil in the Early Middle AgesPeter Dendle4: The Devil Theorised and RationalisedChristopher S. Mackay5: Devils, Community and its BoundariesMichael D. Bailey6: Placing SatanEileen Gardiner7: The Devil’s MinionsDavid R. Winter8: Satan and the Divine Plan: Politics, the Devil and the End of DaysArthur H. Williamson9: Producing Devil Knowledge: Experience, Theory and EvidenceRichard Raiswell10: Communicating the DevilMarion Gibson11: Devil FindersJan Machielsen12: Rituals of Contamination, Purification and EradicationIsmael del Olmo13: The Devil and StatecraftGary K. Waite14: Satan, Sex and Gender in Early Modern EuropeErika Gasser15: Seeing SatanLinda C. Hults16: The Devil and ColonialismJutta Wimmler17: “Evil and desirable”: Gothic Inversion and the Satanic Monster in 18th- and 19th-Century FictionMiranda Corcoran18: The Devil, Protest and the Age of RevolutionPer Faxneld19: The Devil and War, 1600-1920David R. Lawrence20: Devil, Temptation, Conscience, EmotionCharlotte-Rose Millar21: Conjuring the Devil: The Cinematic Satan, 1899-2020W. Scott Poole22: Humanising the Devil, c. 1850-2000Karl Bell23: The Emergence of a Satan ProblemBill Ellis24: Communities, Purity and ConspiracySarah Hughes25: Demons, Missionaries and MigrantsJohanneke Kroesbergen-Kamps26: The Digital DevilPhilip L. Frana27: Into the 21st CenturyRobert L. IvieEpilogue

"The Routledge History of the Devil is essential reading for any student or scholar interested in this subject, along with those working in any of the disciplines represented across the chapters... Its theoretical approach offers an innovative way of studying the past— focusing on the anxieties, fears, and dark impulses that plagued communities— and provides a powerful lens through which to comprehend the multifaceted figure that is the Devil."Brendan C. Walsh in Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, vol 15, no. 1."This book deserves a broad and interested readership."Meret Fehlmann in Journal of Anomalistics/Zeitschrift für Anomalistik, vol. 25 (2).