Este trabalho teve como finalidade a análise da relação existente entre alguns textos bíblicos e a tradição dos Vigilantes do judaísmo enoquita. A tradição enoquita nasceu dentro da reflexão sobre o problema do mal, e atribuiu a origem do mesmo à rebeldia de seres angelicais contra Deus. Estes anjos se corromperam ao ensinar segredos proibidos aos homens, e ao terem se entregado a relações sexuais com as mulheres. Desta relação antinatural, foram originados seres híbridos, os Nephilins, que macularam a terra. Através das narrativas dos espíritos dos Nephilins mortos, e também dos anjos caídos, tem-se o desenvolvimento de uma demonologia. A fim de alcançar o objetivo deste trabalho, realizou-se uma reflexão sobre os argumentos bíblicos para o problema do mal, depois se pesquisou sobre a tradição enoquita, e por fim, analisou-se especificamente a relação existente entre alguns textos bíblicos e a tradição dos Vigilantes. Através dessa análise, foi possível perceber que de fato alguns textos bíblicos provavelmente estão relacionados com a tradição dos Vigilantes, oriunda do judaísmo enoquita. / This project has the purpose of analyzing the relationship which exists between specific biblical texts and the Watchers tradition in Enochic Judaism. The Enochic tradition was born from reflections about the problem of evil, and attribute its origin to the rebellion of angelic beings against God. These angels corrupted themselves by teaching forbidden secrets to men, and by both taking women as their wives and having sexual relations with them. From these unnatural relations were born hybrid beings, the Nephilim, who in turn polluted the earth. By means of both the spirits of the Nephilim dead and fallen angels, we encounter the development of a theology of demonology. In order to reach the purpose of this project, we will reflect on the biblical arguments for the problem of evil, then we will investigate the enochic tradition, and, finally, we will specifically analyze the relation between some biblical texts and the Watchers tradition. By means of this analysis, we will be able to perceive that there is in fact a literary relationship between these biblical texts and the Watchers tradition, originating from Enochic Judaism.

The numerous ontological and epistemological paradoxes found within La Démonomanie des sorciers, a demonological treaty of the 16th century, are studied within the context of demonic corporality: exploiting a rich philosophical and theological intertextuality as well as, more generally, a confessional model of logic, La Démonomanie (1580) constructs a linguistic world of demonic bodies capable of copulation, transformation, and imbuing humans with the power to practice magic. Following in the footsteps of the demonologists who precede him, Bodin constructs a system of the real and of knowledge which is as much dependent upon the authoritative ethos of his intellectual forefathers as upon the increasingly abundant demonological confessions of his own time. Despite the certainty of Jean Bodin’s tone and his fastidious deployment of internal logic, the problematics of such demonic corporality, both with regards to its theological justification as well as to its lack of direct, observable evidence, lead ultimately to an anxious appeal to the political in the text in an attempt to mitigate these aforementioned demonological contradictions and appease those who seek material reassurance. To this end, this orientation from the theological towards the political in the text, which provides a physical anchoring of Bodin’s demonological vision in a protective realm of harmonious, yet divinely necessary opposites to counter the inherent abstraction of its subject matter, certainly provides us with an insight into the divisive and anxiety-laced intellectual landscape of the late French Renaissance, insofar as it illuminates the increasingly prominent naturalist objections to established spiritual orthodoxy. However ultimately efficient this shifting orientation may be in its capacity to mitigate direct concerns, the immediate resolution of the demonic paradox in the text fails to find its complete realization, given that the specter of its own weight is not only a theoretical concern to reasoned away, but also an impossibly elusive, spiritual one—as La Démonomanie becomes as much an apparent political praxis as a demonstration of faith, its ostensibly resolved struggle with demonic corporality still betrays, even at its close, a man’s journey of faith to rid the demonic shadows from an ambiguous reality that even prescribed fire may not be capable of exorcising.

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Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1995. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 247-256).

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"The Devil in the Detail" explores the rationality of magical belief on the early modern English stage. I examine how demons and demonic magic were depicted in the theatre, arguing that playwrights ascribed a sense of realism to the devil’s methods. In explaining the devil's modus operandi and exposing the limitations of his magic, the stage validates supernatural belief and depicts the devil’s craft as plausible. More broadly, this thesis is situated within the ongoing debate over the relationship between magic and scientific thought in early modern Europe, confirming that demonology was not an irrational superstition but a valid pre-science. Set against a background of witch persecution and the widespread belief that demons were a material reality, the devil was both the subject of prevalent intellectual inquiry and a popular figure on the early modern English stage, featuring in at least fifty-two plays between 1509 and 1638. Underpinning this particular brand of entertainment is a cohesive and consistent ontological framework that dictated the extent to which the devil could - and could not - operate in the material world, entirely in keeping with the dominant demonological thought of the time. "The Devil in the Detail" focuses on seven devil plays: Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (c.1590), Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (c.1590), John of Bordeaux (c.1590), Jonson's The Devil is an Ass (1616), Dekker, Ford and Rowley's The Witch of Edmonton (1621), Brome and Heywood's The Late Lancashire Witches (1634) and Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611). In each chapter, I demonstrate how these texts both adhere to orthodox demonology and emphasise the devil’s humanlike qualities. The final chapter presents the case for demonism in The Tempest.

A partir da controvérsia entre John Webster (1610-1682) e Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680) em torno da bruxaria como um pacto diabólico propõe-se compreender em alguma medida o sentido que a demonologia poderia adquirir na Inglaterra da Restauração e relacionar a polêmica de ambos com o declínio da perseguição às bruxas. A demonologia é entendida como uma literatura controversa dotada de dimensão cognitiva e social e dedicada ao preternatural, ou seja, a eventos que estariam nas fronteiras entre o natural e o sobrenatural. As obras de demonologia se apropriaram de modo eclético de argumentos, teorias e de episódios oriundos das mais diversas fontes e os organizaram em torno de alguns tópicos fundamentais. A demonologia esteve relacionada com diferentes lugares, épocas e saberes, em especial a filosofia natural e a teologia. Tendo isso em vista, os tratados de demonologia de Webster e Glanvill, The displaying of supposed witchcraft (1677) e Saducismus triumphatus (1688), foram estudados em paralelo, colocados em confronto, relacionados com outros escritos deles, associados às discussões demonológicas e ao contexto intelectual e histórico. A polêmica entre Webster e Glanvill mostrou que a demonologia se apresentava como uma maneira de advogar compromissos de natureza filosófica e religiosa que estavam relacionados com o surgimento da ciência moderna e com a diversidade religiosa existente na Inglaterra. Mas, apesar dessa flexibilidade, a demonologia entrou em declínio à medida que avançou o ceticismo das autoridades com relação ao crime da bruxaria e a experiência se tornou experimentação. O fim dos julgamentos de bruxas impossibilitou que a demonologia se adequasse a requisitos mais rigorosos, e impossíveis, de evidência. / From the controversy between John Webster (1610-1682) e Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680) about witchcraft as diabolical pact it is proposed to comprehend in some sort the meaning that demonology could acquire in Restoration England and to relate the polemics of both to the decline of the witches\' persecution. Demonology is understood as a controversial literature endowed of cognitive and social dimensions and dedicated to the preternatural, that is, to events that would be in the border between natural and supernatural. The works of demonology would appropriate in a eclectic way the arguments, theories and episodes from different sources and would organize them into some essential topics. Demonology was related to different places, times and fields of knowledge, specially to natural philosophy and theology. Keeping that in mind, Webster\'s and Glanvill demonology treatises, The displaying of supposed witchcraft (1677) and Saducismus triumphatus (1688), were studied in parallel, put in conflict, related to other works of the authors, associated with the demonological controversies and with the intellectual and historical context. The controversy between Webster and Glanvill showed that demonology presented itself as a manner of defending philosophical and religious compromises that were related to the rise of modern science and religious diversity in England. However, despite this flexibility, demonology declined as skepticism of the authorities about the crime of witchcraft advanced and the experience was turn into experimentation. The end of the witch trials made impossible for demonology to adapt to more strict, and unreachable, requirements of evidence.

The Flagellum haereticorum fascinariorum (The Scourge of Heretical Bewitchers) was written by the Dominican inquisitor Nicolas Jacquier in 1458. Jacquier wrote the text to combat a sect of diabolical witches, the fascinarii, who worshipped demons at nocturnal “synagogues” and performed terrible crimes with demonic aid. The Flagellum was also aimed at those who did not believe in the physical reality of the sect or of interactions between humans and demons. This thesis, the first English-language work to examine the Flagellum in detail, traces Jacquier’s argument and endeavours to understand how his text was shaped within, and also helped shape, the cultural structures of late-medieval Burgundy. / Jacquier’s argument can be loosely divided into four parts. The first section defines the ways in which demons relate to humans, concluding that demons can act to delude humans both within the body, and through real, bodily interaction in the external world. The second section attacks the argument, based on the famous Canon Episcopi, that the fascinarii are simply deluded spiritually by the interior manipulation of demons. The reality of a demonworshiping sect raised questions about God’s omnipotence and benevolence. The Flagellum’s third part therefore elaborates a theology of divine permission based on the metaphor of the scourge to argue that God justly permits demonic action in the world. The final chapters of the tract turn to the legal dilemmas raised by the fascinarii. Jacquier argues that the fascinarii freely choose to sin and addresses difficulties associated with the possibility of demonic interference in witness statements. / Alongside my description of Jacquier’s argument, I have endeavoured to situate the Flagellum within the cultural structures of late-medieval Burgundy. I examine how the Flagellum can be read alongside a tale from the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles to reveal tropes of demonic deception within fifteenth-century Burgundian courtly texts. I explore the possibilities of interpreting the Flagellum’s treatment of gender within the Dominican reform movement, with its focus on external and communal piety. I interpret the symbolic language of the scourge and trampling within Christian cultural structures of redemption through abasement. Setting the tract in dialogue with fifteenth century Burgundian art, I begin the task of understanding the ways in which time is organised within the Flagellum through an examination of scholastic epistemology. Finally, I situate arguments about the fascinarii and free will within debates over free will and determinism. The result of these discussions is an appreciation of the Flagellum’s immersion in interrelated cultural structures of bodily reality, sight, time and knowledge. / Through this analysis, I locate the study of witchcraft within a wider cultural history, uniting the interpretation of Burgundian art, literature and theology with an intensive study of the Flagellum.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 214-223).

With this paper, I aim to demonstrate that, in Late Antiquity, the definition of magic was inherent to the definition of its opposite, religion. Assuming that the separation of magic and religion is the symptom of cultural clashes. I argue that Iamblichus' (240-325 AD) De Mysteriis was participating in a politico-religious reorganization of the Roman Empire. / The first part of the study analyses the religions beliefs of Porphyry (232--305 AD). With this analysis, I demonstrate that Iamblichus rectified Porphyry's philosophical approach to religion, which minimizied the distinctions between magic and religion. / In the second part of the study, I demonstrate how Iamblichus' response to Porphyry rearranged religious evidence into a new holistic system called "theurgy." By drawing from Neoplatonic political theory, I also explain how the De Mysteriis inseparably bounded politics with theology.