angel and demon

▪ religion

Introduction

demon also spelled  daemon 

 respectively, any benevolent or malevolent spiritual being that mediates between the transcendent and temporal realms.

      Throughout the history of religions (myth), varying kinds and degrees of beliefs have existed in various spiritual beings, powers, and principles that mediate between the realm of the sacred or holy—i.e., the transcendent realm—and the profane realm of time, space, and cause and effect. Such spiritual beings when regarded as benevolent are usually called angels in Western religions; those viewed as malevolent are termed demons. In other religions—Eastern, ancient, and those of nonliterate cultures—such intermediate beings are less categorical, for they may be benevolent in some circumstances and malevolent in others.

Nature and significance

Angels

      The term angel, which is derived from the Greek word angelos, is the equivalent of the Hebrew word mal'akh, meaning “messenger.” The literal meaning of the word angel thus points more toward the function or status of such beings in a cosmic hierarchy rather than toward connotations of essence or nature, which have been prominent in popular piety, especially in Western religions. Thus, angels have their significance primarily in what they do rather than in what they are. Whatever essence or inherent nature they possess is in terms of their relationship to their source (God, or the ultimate being). Because of the Western iconography (the system of image symbols) of angels, however, they have been granted essential identities that often surpass their functional relationships to the sacred or holy and their performative relationships to the profane world. In other words, popular piety, feeding on graphic and symbolic representations of angels, has to some extent posited semidivine or even divine status to angelic figures. Though such occurrences are not usually sanctioned doctrinally or theologically, some angelic figures, such as Mithra (a Persian god who in Zoroastrianism became an angelic mediator between heaven and earth and judge and preserver of the created world), have achieved semidivine or divine status with their own cults.

      In Zoroastrianism there was a belief in the amesha spentas (amesha spenta), or the holy or bounteous immortals, who were functional aspects or entities of Ahura Mazdā, the Wise Lord. One of the amesha spentas, Vohu Manah (Good Mind), revealed to the Iranian prophet Zoroaster (6th century BC) the true God, his nature, and a kind of ethical covenant, which man may accept and obey or reject and disobey. In a similar manner, about 1,200 years later, the angel Gabriel (Man of God) revealed to the Arabian prophet Muḥammad (5th–6th century AD) the Qurʾān (the Islāmic (Islām) scriptures) and the true God (Allāh), his oneness, and the ethical and cultic requirements of Islām. The epithets used to describe Gabriel, the messenger of God—“the spirit of holiness” and “the faithful spirit”—are similar to those applied to the amesha spentas of Zoroastrianism and the third Person of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in Christianity. In these monotheistic religions (though Zoroastrianism later became dualistic) as also in Judaism, the functional characteristics of angels are more clearly enunciated than their ontological (or nature of Being) characteristics—except in the many instances in which popular piety and legend have glossed over the functional aspects.

      Various religions, including those of nonliterate cultures, have beliefs in intermediary beings between the sacred and profane realms, but the belief is most fully elaborated in religions of the West.

Demons

 The term demon is derived from the Greek word daimōn, which means a “supernatural being” or “spirit.” Though it has commonly been associated with an evil (devil) or malevolent spirit, the term originally meant a spiritual being that influenced a person's character. An agathos daimōn (“good spirit”), for example, was benevolent in its relationship to men. The Greek philosopher Socrates, for example, spoke of his daimōn as a spirit that inspired him to seek and speak the truth. The term gradually was applied to the lesser spirits of the supernatural realm who exerted pressures on men to perform actions that were not conducive to their well-being. The dominant interpretation has been weighted in favour of malevolence and that which forbodes evil, misfortune, and mischief.

      In religions of nonliterate peoples, spiritual beings may be viewed as either malevolent or benevolent according to the circumstances facing the individual or community. Thus, the usual classification that places demons among malevolent beings is not totally applicable in reference to these religions.

      The positions of spiritual beings or entities viewed as benevolent or malevolent may, in the course of time be reversed. Such has been the case in the ancient Indo-Iranian religion, from which evolved early Zoroastrianism and the early Hinduism reflected in the Vedas (ancient Aryan hymns). In Zoroastrianism the daevas were viewed as malevolent beings, but their counterparts, the devas in ancient Hinduism, were viewed as gods. The ahuras of Zoroastrianism were good “lords,” but in Hinduism their counterparts, the asuras, were transformed into evil lords. In a similar manner, Satan, the prosecutor of men in the court of God's justice in the Old Testament book of Job, became the chief antagonist of Christ in Christianity and of man in Islām. Many similar transformations indicate that the sharp distinctions made between angels as benevolent and demons as malevolent may be too simplistic, however helpful such designations may be as indicators of the general functions of such spiritual beings.

Celestial and noncelestial forms: relationships of beliefs in angels and demons to views of the cosmos

      Because man is a being much concerned with boundaries—i.e., what makes him different from other animate beings, what makes his community (and thus his world) different from other communities (and other worlds)—his view of the Cosmos has influenced his understanding of what are called angels and demons. The cosmos may be viewed as monistic, as in Hinduism, in which the cosmos is regarded as wholly sacred or as participating in a single divine principle (Brahman, or Being itself). The cosmos may also be viewed as dualistic, as in Gnosticism (an esoteric religious dualistic belief system, often regarded as a Christian heretical movement, that flourished in the Greco-Roman world in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD), in which the world of matter was generally regarded as evil and the realm of the spirit as good. A third view of the cosmos, generally found in the monotheistic (monotheism) religions of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islām, centred on a tripartite universe: celestial, terrestrial, and subterrestrial. This third view has influenced Western man's concepts of angels and demons as well as his scientific and metaphysical concepts.

Relationship to views of a tripartite cosmos

      In the biblical, Hellenistic (Greco-Roman cultural), and Islāmic worlds of thought, the terrestrial realm was a world in which man was limited by the factors of time, space, and cause and effect. The celestial realm, generally composed of seven heavens (heaven) or spheres dominated by the seven then-known planets, was the realm of the divine and the spiritual. The subterrestrial realm was the area of chaos and the spiritual powers of darkness. At the highest level of the celestial sphere was the ultimate of the sacred or holy: e.g., Yahweh, the God of Judaism, whose name was so holy it should not even be spoken; Bythos, the unknowable beginning beyond beginnings of Gnosticism; the heavenly Father of Christianity, known through his Logos (the divine Word, or Reason, Jesus Christ); and Allāh, the powerful, the almighty, and the sublime God of Islām.

      In order to reveal the purpose and destiny of man—the highest being of the terrestrial realm—the ultimate of the celestial sphere enabled man, according to such views, to come to a knowledge of who he is, what is his origin, and what is his destiny through celestial messengers—angels. The message, or revelation, was usually focussed on the identity of the source of the revelation—i.e., the ultimate being—and on the destiny of man according to his response. Because of a cosmic rift in the heavenly sphere prior to the creation of the world or the announcement of the revelation, angels, depending on their relationship to the Creator, might attempt to deceive man with a false revelation or to reveal the truth about man's true nature (or identity), origin, and destiny. Angels who attempted to pervert the message of the ultimate celestial being in order to confuse man's understanding of his present boundary situation as a terrestrial being or his destiny as a supraterrestrial being—though not always termed demons—are malevolent in function. Included among such malevolent angels are the devil of Christianity and Judaism or Iblīs (the Devil) of Islām, who, in the form of a serpent in the biblical story of the Garden of Eden (original sin)—according to later interpretations of the story—attempted to disrupt man's understanding of his creaturely boundaries, or limitations. He did this by tempting man to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil so that he might become like God (or the divine beings of the heavenly court). In Zoroastrianism, the Evil Spirit (Angra Mainyu, later Ahriman) attempted—through subservient spirits such as Evil Mind, the Lie, and Pride—to deceive terrestrial man so that he would choose a destiny that was subterrestrial—punishment in a chasm of fire.

      In the aftermath of the 16th-century Copernican (Copernican system) revolution (based on the theories of the Polish astronomer Copernicus), in which man's view of the cosmos was radically altered—i.e., the Earth was no longer seen as the centre of the cosmos but, instead, merely as a planet of a solar system that is a very small part of a galaxy in an apparently infinite universe—the concepts of angels and demons no longer seemed appropriate. The tripartite cosmos—heaven above, Earth in the middle, and hell below—appeared to be an anachronism.

      With the emergence of modern Western psychology and psychoanalytical studies in the 19th and 20th centuries, however, the underlying principles of beliefs in angels and demons have taken on new meanings. Many Christian theologians have found some of the concepts of psychoanalysis helpful in reinterpreting the meanings underlying primitive and traditional beliefs in angels and demons. The tripartite cosmos was re-mythologized into a tripartite structure of the personality—the superego (the restrictive social regulations that enable man to live as a social being), the ego (the conscious aspects of man), and the id, or libido (a “seething, boiling cauldron of desire that seeks to erupt from beneath the threshold of consciousness”). Thus, demons—according to this reinterpretation—might well be redefined as projections of the unregulated drives of man that force him to act only according to his own selfish desires, taking no account of their effects on other persons. From a social point of view, demons might also be defined as the environmental and hereditary forces that cause man to act, think, and speak in ways that are contrary to the well-being of himself and his community. A modern French writer, Denis de Rougemont, has maintained in his book The Devil's Share that the devil and the demonic forces that plague the modern world can be well documented in modern man's return to barbarism and man's inhumanity to man. In the 2nd century AD, Clement of Alexandria (Clement of Alexandria, Saint), a Christian philosophical theologian, pointed toward a psychological interpretation of demonic forces by stating that man was often captivated by the inner appetitive drives of his passions and bodily desires. The Freudian “myth” of the human personality and other psychological studies have thus initiated a new dimension in the study of angels and demons. Medieval iconography, which graphically depicted angels and demons as hybrid creatures that often defied even the most vivid imaginations of the persons who viewed them, has been supplanted by psychological, psychoanalytical, and modern mythological symbolism coupled with theological reflection.

Relationship to views of a dualistic cosmos

      In religious traditions that have viewed the cosmos in a dualistic (dualism) fashion, such as Gnosticism, angels were believed to be celestial beings who controlled certain spheres through which a soul was to pass as it freed itself from the shackles of its material existence. Knowledge of these angels and their names was a necessary prerequisite for achieving eventual union with the ultimate spiritual reality. Included among various lists of the seven angels ruling the seven planetary spheres are Gabriel, Adonai (Lord), Aariel (lion of God), and others. The angel of the creation of the world of matter, Yahweh (sometimes called the Demiurge, the Creator), was evil, in the Gnostic view, not only because he was the Creator but also because he tried to keep spiritual men from knowing their true origin, nature, and destiny.

       Manichaeism, a dualistic religion founded in the 3rd century AD by Mani, an Iranian prophet, like Gnosticism divided the world into two spheres—Goodness (Light) and Evil (Darkness). These two principles are mixed in the world of matter, and the object of salvation is to unmix the material and the spiritual so that one may achieve a state of absolute goodness. Highest in the celestial hierarchy are the 12 light diadems of the Father of Greatness and the Twelve Aeons (aeon), the “firstborn”—angelic figures that are divided into groups of threes, surrounding the Supreme Being in the four quarters of the heavens. Because the Devil, the Prince of Darkness, desires the advantages of the Kingdom of Light, in an ensuing battle between the celestial forces Light and Darkness are mixed, and the world of matter and spirit is created. Unaware of his spiritual nature and constantly tempted by the demons of the Prince of Darkness, man is eventually led to understand his true nature through the activity of angelic beings called the Friends of the Lights and the Living Spirit and his five helpers: Holder of Splendour, King of Honour, Light of Man, King of Glory, and Supporter.

Relationship to views of a monistic cosmos

      Those who view the cosmos as basically monistic—such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism—generally have no belief in angels, who function mainly as revealers of the truth. This function is performed by other beings, such as avatāra (avatar)s (incarnations of the gods) in Hinduism, tīrthaṅkara (Tirthankara)s (saints or prophets) in Jainism, or bodhisattvas (Buddhas-to-be) in Buddhism. Because such personages generally are viewed more in terms of exemplifiers of the holy life than as conduits of a revelation (except in the case of several avatāras and bodhisattvas), they are not to be regarded in terms of the typical Western conceptions of angelic beings. These religions do, however, have widespread beliefs in demons.

Belief in demons as common to all religious or mythological views about the cosmos

      Belief in demons is not connected with any particular view of the cosmos. Demons have a very wide geographical and lengthy historical role as spiritual beings influencing man in his relationship to the sacred or holy. They may be semihuman, nonhuman, or ghostly human beings who, for various reasons, generally attempt to coerce man into not attaining his higher spiritual aspirations or not performing activities necessary for his well-being in the normal course of living. The ancient Assyrian demon rabiṣu apparently is a classic prototype of a supernatural being that instilled such a fear in men that their hair literally raised from their bodies when confronted with knowledge of the rabiṣu's presence.

      In 17th-century Europe, various demons were cataloged according to their powers to entice men to indulge in what were called their basic instincts or desires. Included in such lists were nightmare demons, demons formed from the semen of copulation, and demons who deceived persons into believing that they could perform transvections (nocturnal flights to sites of sabbats, alleged rites of witchcraft). According to some authorities in the 20th century (as well as early Christian polemicists), the alleged demons noted by the prevailing religions of the world are the former gods or spiritual beings that succumbed to or were overpowered by the dominant doctrinal views of a conquering people. Thus, the Teutonic, Slavic, Celtic, or Roman gods either were reduced to demonic antagonists of Christ, his saints, or his angels or were absorbed by the cults of Christian saint figures. Followers of the ancient but no longer influential deities were often subjected to persecution as advocates of witchcraft, especially in Christian Europe (see also witchcraft).

Types of angels and demons

      Angels and demons, as noted earlier, have been categorized as benevolent, malevolent, or ambivalent or neutral beings that mediate between the sacred and profane realms.

Benevolent beings

 Benevolent beings, usually angels but sometimes ghosts of ancestors or other spiritual beings that have been placated by sacrifices or other rituals, assist man in achieving a proper rapport with God, other spiritual beings, or man's life situations. Angels, for example, not only act as revealers of divine truths, but they also are believed to be efficacious in helping man to attain salvation or special graces or favours. Their primary function is to praise and serve God and do his will. This is true of angels in both Christianity and Zoroastrianism, as well as in Judaism and Islām. As functional extensions of the divine will, they sometimes intervene in human affairs by rewarding the faithful and punishing the unjust or by saving the weak, who are in need of help, and destroying the wicked, who unjustly persecute their fellow creatures. In the intertestamental book of Tobit (an apocryphal, or “hidden,” book that is not accepted as canonical by Jews and Protestants), the archangel Raphael (God Heals), for example, helps the hero Tobias, the son of Tobit, on a journey and also reveals to him magic formulas to cure his father's blindness and to counteract the power of the demon Asmodeus.

      Angels also have been described as participants in the creation and the providential continuance of the cosmos. Clement of Alexandria, influenced by Hellenistic cosmology, stated that they functioned as the movers of the stars and controlled the four elements—earth, air, fire, and water. Many angels are believed to be guardians over individuals and nations. The view that there are guardian angels watching over children has been a significant belief in the popular piety of Roman Catholicism. Angels are also regarded as the conductors of the souls of the dead to the supraterrestrial world. In the procreation of men, angels are believed to perform various services. This is especially noticeable in the instances of angels announcing the births of divine figures or special religious personages, such as Jesus and John the Baptist in the New Testament.

      Though the function of angels is of primary significance, theological reflection and popular piety have placed much emphasis on the nature of angels. In early Judaism angels were conceived as beings in human form: the angel who wrestled with the patriarch Jacob, as recorded in the book of Genesis, was in the form of a man. In Judaism of the Hellenistic period (3rd century BC to 3rd century AD), however, angels were viewed as noncorporeal spiritual beings who appeared to man in an apparitional fashion. Their spiritual nature had been emphasized earlier by Old Testament prophets, such as Ezekiel and Isaiah, in their visionary descriptions. The cherubim (cherub) and seraphim (seraph), two superior orders of angels, are described as winged creatures that guard the throne of God. The use of wings attached to various beings symbolizes their invisible and spiritual nature, a practice that can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians, who represented the battling sun-god Horus of Edfu as a winged disk. In Christian iconography the spiritual nature of angels has been almost universally represented—until the 20th century—by winged human figures. Their spirituality and, therefore, their noncorporeality led to various kinds of speculation among theologians and common people about the nature of the appearances of angels, which has been recorded in both Scripture and legends based on popular piety. Some theologians, such as Augustine (Augustine, Saint) in the 4th and 5th centuries, stated that angels, who have ethereal bodies, may be able to assume material bodies. This problem, however, has not been solved to the satisfaction of later theologians.

Malevolent beings

      Malevolent beings—demons, fallen angels, ghosts, goblins, evil spirits in nature, hybrid creatures, the daevas of Zoroastrianism, the nārakas (creatures of hell) of Jainism, the oni (attendants of the gods of the underworld) in Japanese religions, and other such beings—hinder man in achieving a proper relation with God, the spiritual realm, or man's life situations. Some angels are believed to have fallen from a position of proximity to God—such as Lucifer (after his fall called Satan by early Church Fathers) in Judaism, Christianity, and Islām—because of pride or for attempts to usurp the position of the Supreme Being. In their fallen condition they then attempt to keep man from gaining a right relationship with God by provoking men to sin. Some medieval scholars of demonology ascribed to a hierarchy of seven archdemons the seven deadly sins: Lucifer (Pride); Mammon (Avarice); Asmodeus (Lechery); Satan (Anger); Beelzebub (Gluttony); Leviathan (Envy); and Belphegor (Sloth). Besides tempting men to sin, the fallen angels, or devils, were believed to cause various types of calamities, both natural and accidental. Like the demons and evil spirits of nature in primitive religions, the fallen angels were viewed as the agents of famine, disease, war, earthquakes, accidental deaths, and various mental or emotional disorders. Persons afflicted with mental diseases were considered to be “demon possessed.”

      Though the functions of demonic figures, like those of fallen angels, is of major significance, the nature of demons has been of concern to theologians and persons infused with popular piety. Like angels, demons are regarded as spiritual, noncorporeal beings, but they have been depicted in religious iconography as hybrid creatures with horrifying characteristics or as caricatures of idols of an opposing religion. In the early church, for example, there was a belief that pagan idols were inhabited by demons. The horrifying aspects of demons have been represented in the woodcuts of medieval and Reformation artists and in the masks of shamans, medicine men, and priests of primitive religions—either to frighten the believer into behaving according to accepted norms or to ward off ritualistically the power of the demonic forces loose in the terrestrial or profane realm.

Ambivalent or neutral beings

      Ambivalent or neutral spiritual beings are usually not found in Western religions, which usually divide the inhabitants of the cosmos into those who are either allied with or in opposition to the Supreme Being. Islām, however, classifies spiritual beings into angels (malā'ikah), demons (shāyaṭīn), and djinni, or genies (jinni). This last category includes spiritual beings that might be either benevolent or malevolent. According to legend, the djinni were created out of fire 2,000 years before the creation of Adam, the first man. Capable of both visibility and invisibility, a djinni could assume various forms—either animal or human—and could be either a help or a hindrance to man. By cunning, a superior use of intellect, or magic, a man might be able to manipulate a djinni for his own benefit.

      Various minor nature spirits—such as the spirits of water, fire, mountains, winds, and other spirits recognized in primitive religions—are generally neutral, but, in order to keep them that way or to make them beneficial to man, proper sacrifices and rituals must be performed.

Varieties of angels and demons in the religions of the world

      Intermediate beings between the sacred and profane realms assume various forms in the religions of the world: celestial and atmospheric beings; devils, demons, and evil spirits; ghosts, ghouls, and goblins; and nature spirits and fairies.

In Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islām

      In the Western religions, which are monotheistic and view the cosmos as a tripartite universe, angels and demons are generally conceived as celestial or atmospheric spirits. In the popular piety of these religions, however, there is a widespread belief in ghosts, ghouls, goblins, demons, and evil spirits that influence man in his terrestrial condition and activities. The celestial beings may be either benevolent or malevolent, depending on their own relationship to the Supreme Being. On the other hand, the demons and evil spirits that generally influence man in his role as a terrestrial being (rather than in his destiny as a supraterrestrial being) are viewed in popular piety—and somewhat in theological reflection—as malevolent in intent.

      Angels are generally grouped in orders of four, six, or seven in the first ranks, of which there may be several. The use of four, which symbolically implies perfection and is related to the four cardinal points, is found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islām. Early Zoroastrianism, much influenced by the astronomical and astrological sciences of ancient Iran, coordinated the concept of the seven known planetary spheres with its belief in the heptad (grouping of seven) of celestial beings—i.e., the amesha spentas (amesha spenta) of Ahura Mazdā: Spenta Mainyu (the Holy Spirit), Vohu Mana (Good Mind), Asha (Truth), Ārmaiti (Right Mindedness), Khshathra (Kingdom), Haurvatāt (Wholeness), and Ameretāt (Immortality). In later Zoroastrianism, though not in the Gāthās (the early hymns, believed to have been written by Zoroaster, in the Avesta, the sacred scriptures), Ahura Mazdā and Spenta Mainyu were identified with each other, and the remaining bounteous immortals were grouped in an order of six. Over against the bounteous immortals, who helped to link the spiritual and the material worlds together, was the counterpart of the Holy Spirit, namely Angra Mainyu, the Evil Spirit, who later became the great adversary Ahriman (the prototype of the Jewish, Christian, and Islāmic Satan), and the daevas, who were most likely gods of early Indo-Iranian religion. Allied with Angra Mainyu against Ahura Mazdā were Akōman (Evil Mind), Indrā-vāyū (Death), Saurva (a daeva of death and disease), Nāñhaithya (a daeva related to the Vedic god Nāsatya), Tauru (difficult to identify), and Zairi (the personification of Haoma, the sacred drink related to the sacrifices of both ahuras and daevas). Among other demonic figures is Aēshma (violence, fury, or the aggressive impulse that consumes man)—who may well be the demon Asmodeus of the book of Tobit, Āz (Concupiscence or Lust), Mithrāndruj (He Who Lies to Mithra or False Speech), Jēh (the demon Whore, created later by Ahriman to defile the human race), and many others (see also Zoroastrianism).

      Angelology and demonology in Judaism became more highly developed during and after the period of the Babylonian Exile (6th–5th centuries BC), when contacts were made with Zoroastrianism. In the Old Testament, Yahweh is called the Lord of hosts. These hosts (Sabaoth) are the heavenly army that fights against the forces of evil and performs various missions, such as guarding the entrance to Paradise, punishing evildoers, protecting the faithful, and revealing God's Word to man. Two archangels are mentioned in the canonical Old Testament: Michael, the warrior leader of the heavenly hosts, and Gabriel, the heavenly messenger. Two are mentioned in the apocryphal Old Testament: Raphael, God's healer or helper (in the book of Tobit), and Uriel (Fire of God), the watcher over the world and the lowest part of hell (in II Esdras). Though these are the only four named, seven archangels are noted in Tob. 12:15. Besides the archangels, there were also other orders of angels, the cherubim and seraphim, which have been noted earlier.

      Under the influence of Zoroastrianism, Satan, the adversary, probably evolved into the archdemon. Other demons included Azazel (the demon of the wilderness, incarnated in the scapegoat), Leviathan and Rahab (demons of chaos), Lilith (a female night demon), and others. To protect themselves from the powers of the demons and unclean spirits, Jews influenced by folk beliefs and customs (as with Christians later) often carried charms, amulets, and talismans inscribed with efficacious formulas (see also Judaism).

      Christianity, probably influenced by the angelology of Jewish sects such as the Pharisees and the Essenes as well as of the Hellenistic world, further enhanced and developed theories and beliefs in angels and demons. In the New Testament, celestial beings were grouped into seven ranks: angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominions, and thrones. In addition to these were added the Old Testament cherubim and seraphim, which, with the seven other ranks, comprised the nine choirs of angels in later Christian mystical theology. Various other numbers of the orders of angels have been given by early Christian writers: four, in The Sibylline Oracles (Sibylline Oracles) (a supposedly Jewish work that shows much Christian influence); six, in the Shepherd of Hermas, a book accepted as canonical in some local early Christian churches; and seven, in the works of Clement of Alexandria and other major theologians. In both folk piety and theology the number has generally been fixed at seven. The angels receiving most attention and veneration in Christianity were the four angels mentioned in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. Michael became the favourite of many, and in the practice of his cult there was often some confusion with St. George, who was also a warrior figure.

      Demonology experienced a renewal in Christianity that probably would have been acceptable in Zoroastrianism. Satan, the archenemy of the Christ; Lucifer, the fallen Light Bearer; and the originally Canaanite Beelzebub, the Lord of Flies (or, perhaps, Beelzebul, the Lord of Dung), mentioned by Jesus, are all devils. The concept and term devil are derived from the Zoroastrian concept of daevas and the Greek word daibolos (“slanderer” or “accuser”), which is a translation of the Jewish concept of Satan. As a singular demonic force or personification of evil, the devil's chief activity was to tempt man to act in such a way that he would not achieve his supraterrestrial destiny. Because demons were believed to inhabit waterless wastelands, where hungry and tired persons often had visual and auditory hallucinations, early Christian monks went into the deserts to be the vanguard of God's army in joining battle with the tempting devils. They often recorded that the devil came to them in visions as a seductive woman, tempting them to violate their vows to keep themselves sexually pure, both physically and mentally.

      During certain periods in Christian Europe, especially the Middle Ages, worship of demons and the practice of witchcraft brought about the wrath of both church and people on those suspected of practicing diabolical rites, such as the black mass. One formula from the Black Mass (the mass said in reverse and with an inverted crucifix on the altar) has survived in popular magic: “hocus-pocus,” an abbreviated from of “Hoc est corpus meum” (“This is my body”), the words of institution in the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. Witchcraft and sorcery have been closely associated with demonology in the thought of Christianity, especially in the West.

      In the second half of the 20th century, in connection with a renewed interest in the supernatural, there has been evidence of a revival of demon worship and black magic (sorcery), although this has generally been restricted to small cults that have proved to be quite ephemeral.

      Angelology and demonology in Islām are closely related to similar doctrines in Judaism and Christianity. Besides the four throne bearers of Allāh, four other angels are well known: Jibrīl (Gabriel), the angel of revelation; Mīkāl (Michael), the angel of nature, providing man with food and knowledge; ʿIzrāʾīl, the angel of death; and Isrāfīl, the angel who places the soul in the body and sounds the trumpet for the Last Judgment. Demons also contend for control of men's lives, the most prominent being Iblīs (the Devil), who tempts mortal man, or Shayṭan, or Satan (see also Islām).

In the religions of the East

 As noted earlier, the function of angels in Eastern religions was carried by avatāras, bodhisattvas, and other such spiritual beings who were extensions of God or the sacred. Belief in demons was and is very widespread, influencing various rituals and practices to counteract the forces that are hostile to man and nature. In Hinduism, the asuras (the Zoroastrian (Zoroastrianism) ahuras) are the demons who oppose the devas (the gods). Both vied for the homa, or the amṛta (the sacred drink that gives power), but the god Viṣṇu (the preserver), incarnated as a beautiful woman (Mohinī), aided the gods so that they alone would drink the amṛta, thus giving them power over the demons. Among the various classes of Hindu asuras (demons) are nāgas (serpent demons); Ahi (the demon of drought); and Kaṃsa (an archdemon). Demons that afflict men include the rākṣasa (rakshasa)s, grotesque and hideous beings of various shapes who haunt cemeteries, impel men to perform foolish acts, and attack sadhus (saintly men), and piśacas, beings who haunt places where violent deaths have occurred. Buddhists (Buddhism) often view their demons as forces that inhibit man from achieving Nirvāṇa (bliss or the extinction of desire). Included among such beings are Māra, an arch tempter, who, with his daughters, Rati (Desire), Rāga (Pleasure), and Tanhā (Restlessness), attempted to dissuade Siddhārtha Gautama, the Buddha, from achieving his Enlightenment. As Mahāyāna (Greater Vehicle) Buddhism spread to Tibet, China, and Japan, many of the demons of the folk religions of these areas were incorporated into Buddhist beliefs. The demons of Chinese religions, the guei-shen, are manifested in all aspects of nature. Besides these nature demons there are goblins, fairies, and ghosts. Because the demons were believed to avoid light, the Chinese who were influenced by Daoism and folk religions used bonfires, firecrackers, and torches to ward off the guei. Japanese religions are similar to Chinese religions in the multiplicity of demons with which men must contend. Among the most fearsome of the Japanese demons are the oni, evil spirits with much power, and the tengu, spirits that possess man and that generally must be exorcized by priests (see also Hinduism; Buddhism; Jainism; Shintō).

In nonliterate religions

      The spiritual beings of nonliterate religions of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas are generally viewed as malevolent or benevolent according to circumstances rather than because of their inherent nature. Eshu, a god of the Yoruba of Nigeria, for example, is looked upon as a protective, benevolent spirit as well as a spirit with an evil power that may be directed toward one's enemies. These beings possess what is called mana (supernatural power), a Melanesian term that can be applied both to spirits and to persons of special status, such as chiefs or shamans (shamanism). In nonliterate religions, the spirits of nature are generally venerated in return for certain favours or to ward off catastrophes, much in the manner of the religion of ancient Rome. Ancestor gods abound, and thus the ghosts of the dead must be placated, often with the performance of elaborate rites (see also shamanism).

Conclusion

      Though traditional beliefs in angels and demons have been questioned among those cultures affected by Western science and technology, reinterpretations of such beliefs, under the influence of psychological studies and the study of myth in the history of religions, have been of significance to theological reflection. By viewing angels and demons functionally, rather than in terms of their natures, modern man may discover that he has a greater kinship than he has generally realized with men of previous or different cultures in his attempt to gain an advantageous rapport with the transcendent, social, and psychological realms that he faces in everyday life.

Linwood Fredericksen

Additional Reading

C. Jouco Bleeker and Geo Widengren (eds.), Historia Religionum: Handbook for the History of Religions, vol. 1, Religions of the Past (1969), and vol. 2, Religions of the Present (1971), contains helpful sections on the role of angels and demons in chapters on the various religions, as well as a very usable bibliography. J.B. Noss, Man's Religions, 4th ed. (1969), contains useful sections on angels and demons. Gustav Davidson, A Dictionary of Angels, Including the Fallen Angels (1967); and Rossell H. Robbins, The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology (1959), are Western-oriented. R.C. Zaehner, The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism (1961), has excellent sections on the role of angels and demons in Zoroastrianism and their relationship to Hindu spiritual beings. Robert M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity, 2nd ed. (1966), contains useful sections relating angelic and demonic figures of Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism to Gnostic speculation. See also Jeffrey B. Russell, Satan: the Early Christian Tradition (1981).

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