The History of Evil

Lucifer on FOX. The femme fatale of Hollywood’s Golden Era. Salem witch trials. QAnon. Death metal. These seemingly disparate phenomena share one thing in common: the view of evil as an active force in the world. But what is evil? Where does evil come from? Is it something we carry within us? Or is it an external force? Is evil something that God allows to happen? Or is there an adversary who tempts us into behaving badly? In this course, we will explore the history of evil through history, art, religion, and politics with focus on the development of the Devil as concept in Christianity. The purpose is to understand how the belief in the Devil, and its two aspects Satan and Lucifer, affect how we view the world and how we relate to those who, throughout history, have been deemed as Other.