The figure of Satan has for centuries embodied or incarnated absolute evil. Existing alongside more intellectualist interpretations of evil, Satan has figured largely in Christian practices, devotions, popular notions of the afterlife, and fears of retribution in the beyond. Satan remains an influential reality today in many Christian traditions and in popular culture. But how should Satan be understood today? De La Torre and Hernandez's volume probes the murky origins of the satanic legends and beliefs back to their pre-Christian roots in the Middle East. They unearth the Satan's roots in Egyptian and Babylonian understandings of evil. They also show, however, that the ancient Satan has some characteristics we would hardly recognize, especially his appearance in most ancient cultures and survival in many traditional religions as the "trickster" figure. While a minor tradition in historic Christianity, the authors argue, seeing Satan as trickster is historically accurate and holds real promise for Christian rethinking in "theology, philosophy, and practice of evil" and how it can be dealt with. This is a fascinating story that helps the reader reframe basic elements of our worldview of good and evil.

The Quest for the Historical Satan

History

De LA Torre, Miguel A.

Hernandez, Albert

World

Fortress Press

This book offers a historical survey and analysis of the ways that medieval and early modern European Christian writers and visionaries conceptualized the meaning of the pentecostal narrative found in the New Testament. While the primary aim of this study is the recovery and examination of the various meanings of Pentecost as envisioned by Christian thinkers during these two historical periods, the relationship of such ideas and concepts to pneumatology in their respective contexts is also discussed in this book. Pneumatological foundations form the core of numerous Christian doctrines in soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. However, rather than attempting a detailed survey of topics and themes already covered in other histories of pneumatology, this study presents a series of vignettes describing Christian conceptions of Pentecost and pneumatology from the late 1100s to about 1670 while examining related questions of theological discourse. Key questions considered in this study are: What is it about Pentecost and the Western imagination that allows Pentecost to show up in a variety of literary and theological forms throughout Christian history? Why have so many Christian visionaries revisited the story of Pentecost as an act of theological reconstruction often aimed at subverting dominant ecclesiastical paradigms? What is the relationship between the miraculous pneumatic communication signified in the biblical story of Pentecost and the empowering voice and gifts of the Holy Spirit?

Subversive Fire, the Untold Story of Pentecost (Asbury Theological Seminary Series in World Christian Revita)

Religion & Spirituality

Hernndez, Albert

Christian Books & Bibles

Emeth Press

915 Pachuco Lifestyle

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Independently published

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Books by Hernandez, Albert