The Devil

Originally published in 1957. This edition is newly typeset. 

Satan is the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning. Falsity and violence—these two features are only too tragically typical of the present century. And of these two diabolical manifestations, it is arguable that falsity is the more essentially Satanic. We shall here attempt to show why this is so. Contemporary man, confronted by the problem of Satan, is divided against himself by a twofold reaction, apparently self-contradictory. He is on the one hand fascinated by this mysterious personage, and on the other hand almost totally skeptical as to his existence and influence on the course of events. His morbid preoccupation with every species of the abnormal and the sensational, his insatiable need for ever more violent stimuli, his restless curiosity regarding the metaphysical and occult—all these things are further degradations of an already superstitious religiosity. The devil, who is a past master in the bizarre, cannot help but be a source of fascination; besides, he has staged a dazzling come-back in modern literature. At the same time, there is an almost total skepticism as to his actual existence: he is bundled away into the attic of discarded mythologies. Of course nobody believes any more in the pantomime demon king flashily got up in horns, red tongue and eyes of coal, rather as a confidence trickster in his working clothes; on the contrary, his trappings are in the latest fashion. But his influence has been watered down to a series of dangerous repressions within the personality. Who can fathom this paradox of the modern consciousness—that the majority of those who will read this book no longer believe in the devil? This book will help you to understand and avoid the wiles and snares of the ancient enemy.