{"title":"Books by Jeffrey Burton Russell","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780801494291","title":"Lucifer","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An attractively written survey of the way the devil appears in art, literature and treatise, during the medieval period, with many signs of an engaging sense of personal commitment to the subject, and an attempt to show its contemporary relevance.\"\u003c\/b\u003e―John O. Ward ― \u003ci\u003eJournal of Religious History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis major contribution to the history of the Middle Ages and to the history of religion will enlighten scholars and students alike and will appeal to anyone concerned with the problem of evil in our world.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEvil is an intrinsically fascinating topic. In \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLucifer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, Jeffrey Burton Russell continues his compelling study of the personification of evil in the figure of the Devil. The previous two volumes in this remarkable tertalogy-\u003ci\u003eThe Devil\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSatan\u003c\/i\u003e-trace the history of the concept of the devil comparatively as it emerged in diverse cultures and followed its development in Western thought from the ancient Hebrew religion through the first five centuries of the Christian era. The present volume charts the evolution of the concept of the devil from the fifth century through the fifteenth.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDrawing on an impressive array of sources from popular religion, art, literature, and drama, as well as from scholastic philosophy, mystical theology, homiletics, and hagiography, Russell provides a detailed treatment of Christian diabology in the Middle Ages. Although he focuses primarily on Western Christian thought, Russell also includes, for the sake of comparison, material on the concept of the devil in Greek Orthodoxy during the Byzantine period as well as in Muslim thought. Russell recounts how the Middle Ages saw a refinement in detail rather than a radical alteration of diabological theory. He shows that the medieval concept of the devil, fundamentally unchanged over the course of the centuries, eventually gave rise to the unyielding beliefs that resulted in the horrifying cruelties of the witch-hunting craze in the 1500s and 1600s.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294805111157,"sku":"9780801494291","price":25.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780801494291_59208faa-b155-4cb3-bd99-4c4e66deb999.jpg?v=1786015973"},{"product_id":"9780801497186","title":"Mephistopheles","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn excellent and important intellectual history.\u003c\/b\u003e―\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eUsing examples from theology, philosophy, art, literature, and popular culture, Russell describes the great changes effected in our idea of the Devil by the intellectual and cultural developments of modern times.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eMephistopheles\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e is the fourth and final volume of Jeffrey Burton Russell's critically acclaimed history of the concept of the Devil. The series constitutes the most complete historical study ever made of the figure called the second most famous personage in Christianity. In the first three volumes, the author brought the history of Christian diabology to the end of the Middle Ages. This volume continues the story from the Reformation to the present, tracing the fragmentation of the tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294908559733,"sku":"9780801497186","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780801497186_e6b73e36-f92e-41ff-8e5e-fa86e8841af8.jpg?v=1786015978"},{"product_id":"9780801494093","title":"The Devil","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Evil—the infliction of pain upon sentient beings—is one of the most long-standing and serious problems of human existence. Frequently and in many cultures evil has been personified. This book is a history of the personification of evil, which for the sake of clarity I have called 'the Devil.' I am a medievalist, but when I began some years ago to work with the concept of the Devil in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, I came to see that I could not understand the medieval Devil except in terms of its historical antecedents. More important, I realized that I could not understand the Devil at all except in the context of the problem of evil. I needed to face the issue of evil squarely, both as a historian and as a human being.\"—from the Preface\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis lively and learned book traces the history of the concept of evil from its beginnings in ancient times to the period of the New Testament. \u003c\/b\u003eA remarkable work of synthesis, it draws upon a vast number of sources in addressing a major historical and philosophical problem over a broad span of time and in a number of diverse cultures, East and West. Jeffrey Burton Russell probes the roots of the idea of evil, treats the development of the idea in the Ancient Near East, and then examines the concept of the Devil as it was formed in late Judaism and early Christianity.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGenerously illustrated with fifty black-and-white photographs, this book will appeal to a wide range of readers, from specialists in religion, theology, sociology, history, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy to anyone with an interest in the demonic, the supernatural, and the question of good and evil.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294983729525,"sku":"9780801494093","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780801494093_bc726be6-c7b3-40f5-9bad-da1c7da20780.jpg?v=1786015969"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-jeffrey-burton-russell.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}