Thea Gomelauri: Exegetical (Ex)change: Jewish ‘Satan’ vs. Christian ‘Demon’

This paper will review the history, function and purpose of evil spirits in Hebraic and Christian literature and will argue that the Christian tradition of demons has been influenced by Hellenistic culture, prompting a diversion from Jewish demonology. In order to do this, I shall present a linguistic analysis of the terms ‘Satan’ and ‘Demon’, highlighting points of convergence and difference in the formation and canonisation of the concept of demonic beings in both traditions. I shall be arguing that Christian references about the actions, and functions of demons support the Jewish ideology of Satan. However, influences from Pagan culture concerning spiritual powers contributed to the development of Christian concepts which find little support in the New Testament. This lead to a disproportionate shift in the independent power of demonic beings, resulting in the establishment of alternative spiritual hierarchies. The study will use canonised literature as well as extracanonical books. I will focus particularly on the book of Job where, for the first time, the term ‘Satan’ refers to a personal agent who is subject under divine power, having no right to function independently, in contrast to the term as a verbal function, found in the Book of Numbers ch.22. From a Christian perspective, I shall explore the relationship of power and the level of influence between the Son of God and demonic powers, looking especially at the temptation of Christ and Jesus’ encounter with the demon-possessed.

Christine Muehlenkamp: A World Reigned by Demons. The Construction of a Boundary Between Church and Society in the First Three Centuries

I deal with Christian strategies of defining and maintaining a boundary against pagan society in the pre-constantinian era. My doctoral thesis (Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Muenster 2007) does not focus on questions of Christian doctrine proper but on the question of what a distinctly Christian way of life is supposed to look like. Despite its different interpretations, the construction of a boundary between church and pagan society is always based on the OT principles of avoiding „Idolatry“ and „Fornication“. In reading Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria as well as early church orders and synodal canons, I encounter different strains of dealing with the challenge of being a Christian in a world that is steeped in traditional religion, cults, and beliefs.

Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe: Demonic and Diabolical Bodies (Workshop proposal)

The material turn in late antique studies (cf P. Cox Miller, The Corporeal Imagination (2009)), has stimulated considerable scholarly interest in early Christian ideas about the constitution and operation of the bodies of demons and the Devil. As Smith has shown in his seminal article, ‘How thin is a demon?’ (JECS 16.4 (2008), 479-512), demons were thought by many non-Christians and Christians alike to have bodies – insubstantial, wispy, aery bodies, but bodies nonetheless, which required sustenance, and behaved in characteristic ways. As Brakke has explored in his book,Demons and the Making of the Monk (2006), early Christian ascetics were formed in part responsively to the powerful workings of demons on the human body and mind, to be resisted in spiritual and physical fashion. This workshop will build on the work of scholars like Smith and Brakke to explore a broader set of ideas about demonic and diabolical bodies, from ideas of bodies of demons, where multiple creatures act in cohort as one organism; and the quasi-sacramental ideas of human participation in the devil's body that one finds in, for example, Tyconius and Augustine. Overarching topics of interest will include the boundaries and behaviours of demonic bodies; the relationships between human and demonic bodies; the issue of changes in and to demonic bodies. In two workshops, 3 speakers will offer 30-minute papers on diverse treatments of this topic, and the papers at each workshop will be followed by roundtable discussion.