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Discover the complex role the figure of the Devil plays in our belief systems and culture with award-winning Gettysburg College professor Vernon W. Cisney.
Known by many names—Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, and Satan, to name but a few—the Devil is universally recognized as the embodiment of pure evil and rebellion in Christianity. Although little is said about this figure in the Bible, the Devil has, throughout history, served as an abstract canvas onto which human beings have projected their greatest fears and adversarial forces. Depictions of the Devil also come complete with the allure and romance that accompanies characters associated with rebellion and transgression.
In this riveting 21-lecture audio series, Prof. Cisney engages an interdisciplinary lens to unveil and explore the mythos around this elusive figure. As you investigate representations of the Devil in texts ranging from the Bible to Rosemary’s Baby<span”>, you’ll learn how the Devil has been invoked in a variety of contexts—political, natural, epidemiological, religious, and moral—to make a myriad of statements about good and evil.
By tracing the figure of the Devil through 4,000 years of historical, religious, philosophical, lite
$29.99
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Dennis Frank, Chicago, IL (verified owner) –
I purchased this lecture series as a compliment to reading St. Augustine’s City of God with UChicago’s Graham School alumni sequence on literature from the Middle Ages. Augustine spends a lot of time on demons and angels. In short, the dogma of Augustine was so overwhelming that I needed to know how much of this Devil truly appears in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Once that question was answered (not a lot), as I turned to Prof. Vernon Cisney’s lecture series on The Devil: A Biography for a riveting 10+ hours of magnificent and thorough cultural influences throughout time. Each 25 min. lecture is lean and thought provoking. I listened to 3 a day over the course of a week and will revisit the series all over again. Prof. Cisney starts by asking you what your image of the Devil may be, a specter we all seem to share. With a deep dive into the both bibles and the birth of Christianity (one slight but important digression I really need to hear laid out) and covering centuries of art history, literature, philosophical thought, one gets to see how the image and personification of Lucifer started as a sketch of rebellion to the painterly and cinematic Prince of Darkness. Although it begins with early Hebrew text and belief and ends with the American Evangelical Satanic Panic of the 1980’s, the true treat of this series is the middle core of literary representations of Satan from Dante, Milton, Goethe, Twain, Melville, Dostoevsky, and Bulgakov. Every lecture is very self-contained on one specific aspect, and each succeeding lecture gives you a few moments to recap the previous episode in order to take things to a higher level. Don’t be scared! It’s a riveting lecture series on the mythos of Satan.
Most highly recommended!