Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Jesus Creed

Home
Evangelical
Speaking of the Devil

Speaking of the Devil

Last updated on: August 24, 2016 at 4:43 am by Scot McKnight

Speaking of the Devil 2016-08-23T07:28:09-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

By Jonathan Storment

I want to start a series on Spiritual Warfare for the next few weeks. The series is part review of a great new book I read, and part autobiographical on how helpful I find spiritual warfare terminology as a pastor in a local church.

Full Disclosure: I go to church with Richard Beck, the author of the book I am reviewing. He is a good friend and I am anything but unbiased in this book review. But I think I would love this book even if I didn’t know Richard.

It is about how a progressive Christian worldview, filled with doubts and disenchantment can revisit those doubts, specifically when it comes to things like spiritual warfare and the Devil. (image)

I went to a conservative Christian college, and both my roommate and I were Bible majors. We were taking a class with a very eccentric and brilliant Old Testament professor, and at one point in the class the subject of the Devil came up.

But this professor talked about the Devil in a way that we had never heard before. He called him The Satan or Accuser, and he hinted around that he might not even be real.

So my roommate actually took this professor out to lunch, and in a whispered conversation he promised him that he didn’t have a tape recorder and he wasn’t trying to trap him, but would he please tell us was the Devil real or not?

You know, the usual stuff you talk about over lunch.

Over the past few years, whenever preacher friends hang out with my family, my wife has started doing something of a practical joke that succeeds in making them feel awkward. She waits until they are nice and relaxed and then she will just bluntly ask them “Do you believe in a literal devil?” She did this at first for her own curiosity. But the past half a dozen times she has done it for the amusement of watching people squirm as they tried to nuance something very complex that has been hijacked by people with an over-active imagination and an emphasis on certain Scriptures.

For some of you this whole conversation doesn’t make sense at all. Of course there is a Devil, Jesus was tempted by someone in the wilderness, after all. The Bible clearly says that Job’s suffering was instigated by Satan, and we all know that he prowls around like a roaring lion. So what’s the problem?

For others, the notion of a literal devil smacks of anti-intellectual rubbish. We love Jesus and are all in on the love and mercy bits of the Christian tradition, but just because the Bible talks about dragons doesn’t mean we have to believe in them to have faith in Jesus.

Sure there is evil, but there isn’t really a personification of evil, especially if he’s got to have a red tail and a pitchfork.

To both of those groups, I would love to introduce you to Richard Beck. Richard is a good friend of mine, and a brilliant guy. And he recently wrote a book about the Devil called “Reviving Old Scratch: Devil and Demons for the Doubters and Disenchanted”

Beck is writing to and as one of the people in the 2nd group, the book is part memoir on his journey of skepticism and disenchantment toward realizing that a robust Christian faith must involve spiritual warfare.

Here’s how Beck says it:

Those doubting and disenchanted Christians often describe themselves with a bewildering array of labels – labels such as liberal, progressive, emergent, post-fundamentalist, or post-evangelical. A common thread running through these labels is an eagerness to embrace science, a faith that unapologetically embraces the current scientific consensus in biology, geology, cosmology, and every other scientific discipline.

Now, a scientifically educated and sophisticated faith is a wonderful thing, but scientific literacy has a price. Embracing science can cause us to doubt the spookier aspects of faith.

So what does that mean?

Instead of starting with a picture of a devil in red tights, or Dante’s inferno, what if we started with something more common to everyone’s experience.

Have you ever been trying to write something and just watched the cursor on the blank page staring back at you mockingly? Have you ever been trying to compose a piece of music, and that next stanza just won’t come?

Or have you ever been wanting to spend time with a friend who needed you, but you just couldn’t seem to muster the energy to get up off the couch and make it over to her house.

Have you ever felt that it was more than just writers block or laziness that you were bumping up against in those moments, but something that was actually “tempting” you from contributing to the good of the world?

The comedian Amy Poehler talks about the “Demon Voices” that come in her head when she tries to create, telling her that her ideas aren’t good or worthy of being seen and heard by others. This is what the author Steven Pressfield calls “The Resistance” (He wrote a brilliant book all about it called “the War of Art.”)

At the risk of being Captain Obvious, I think it is important to point out that both Poehler and Pressfield are writing from a purely non-religious standpoint. They are talking about something that happens when you try to do something worthwhile in the world and are describing some kind of pushback that they sense. So when we talk about the Devil, what if we started there?

Here’s how Beck talks about this in his book:

When I talk about Satan or the Devil in this book I’m pointing to that which is adversarial to the kingdom of God. And while Christians might disagree about the exact nature of the forces arrayed against the kingdom, we recognize these forces as real and active in the world, forces that need to be fought and resisted. That struggle and the fight is what I’m calling “spiritual warfare.” In this book, “spiritual warfare” is shorthand for the Christ-shaped pushback against all the forces in the world working antagonistically against the kingdom of God. Pg 9

I’d love to have a Christianity full of rainbows and daisies, full of love and inclusion. But there are forces working against love and inclusion in the world, and some of those forces are at work in my own heart and mind. We call those forces hate and exclusion, to say nothing about everything else that is tearing the world to shreds, pushing the loving and gracious rule of God out of the world.

Hate is the satan of love.  Exclusion is the satan of inclusion. War is the satan of peace. Oppression is the satan of justice. Tearing down is the satan of building up. Competition is the satan of cooperation. Revenge is the satan of mercy. Harm is the satan of care. Hostility is the satan of reconciliation.

There is a satan to the kingdom of God. If you follow Jesus, you know there is anti-Jesus

I want to spend the next few weeks walking through a few key ideas in Beck’s book, but for now I think it’s important to say that this is a book that I didn’t know the world needed until I read it, and now I would like everyone I know to read it. Richard asks some great questions, has some profound insights and really can encourage dialogue between two groups of Christians who often look down on each other.

And he also gave me an answer for my wife when she tries to make the conversation awkward.

Yes Leslie there is a Satan.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

August 24, 2016

The Church and the Better Place

Next Post

August 24, 2016 Yes, that's the central issue that divides

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Persian king allowed the Jews to return and rebuild Jerusalem?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Darius Artaxerxes Xerxes Cyrus