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Vincent
Hunink review
of: Adele
Monaci Castagno, Il diavolo e i suoi angeli, testi e tradizioni (secoli
I-III) text published in: Vigiliae Christianae 52, 1998, 338-9 The
Italian paperback series `Biblioteca Patristica' includes not merely useful
editions of important texts, but also anthologies
based on a central theme. For example, there is a collection of pagan
reactions to the rising Christian faith (nr.2), of visions and revelations (nr.
8), and of testimonia on Christians and the Roman army (nr. 9). After two recent
volumes dedicated to the Antichrist (nrs. 20-21), we are now offered a
collection of early texts on the devil himself, compiled by Adele Monaci
Castagno (MC). This is a welcome addition, if only because as a central central
character in Christian thought the devil should not be missing in the series. The
anthology presents the earliest Christian texts after the New Testament that
speak about the devil and his helpers. Starting with testimonies and remarks by
the Apostolic Fathers (such as Ignace of Antioch and the letter of Barnabas),
the volume continues with texts from the Greek Apologists, and, interestingly,
Gnostic traditions. Great names like Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and
Cyprian are given due attention. The last author included in the book is Origin,
to whom more than a hundred pages are devoted (almost a quarter of the text
part). Of each author or anonymous writing, MC gives the relevant portions of
the text with a face to face Italian translation, preceded by a brief
introduction and followed by ample explanatory notes. The volume as such opens
with a general introduction of over a hundred pages, sketching the preceding
history of ideas in the Scriptures and Pseudepigrapha, as well as summarizing
the later developments illustrated in the collection itself. Finally, there are
three indexes and 19 pages of bibliography. The
thematic and chronological arrangement of the book enables readers to gain a
quick overview of Christian ideas on the subject. Perhaps more important, it
allows them to see how these ideas gradually developed from small and diverse
beginnings into a coherent theological system. As MC shows, in this complex
process there is a constant interaction between Christian ideas and the world in
which they take shape: the ever changing cultural backgrounds lead to
corresponding, varying needs of the church. For example, the notion of a
hierarchy of devils, with Satan at the top, is still absent from many of the
earliest texts. Moreover, Christian thought on the devil, MC argues, should not
be considered as the result of discussions by specialists and church officials
only, but also bears the mark of more widely spread religious ideas and fears.
The editor's points are well illustrated by her inclusion of texts from
traditions which later came to be labeled as `apocryphal' or `heterodox'. Thus
we find the Valentinian school and the Acts of Peter placed next to Justinus and
Perpetua. The
present anthology steers a convincing middle course between a theological and a
historical approach, providing a convenient and pleasant access to texts on a
theme which may well be called `crucial' for Western thought. MC's introduction
may prove somewhat too long for many users, but this is only a minor point of
criticism, given the many virtues of the book. latest changes here: 30-07-2012 16:01 |
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