Fallen Angels: Soldiers of Satan's Realm

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE The Century of Liberalism

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE The Century of Liberalism Jewish thought in the nineteenth century was dominated by rationalistic and scientific trends. This was true not only of Reform Jews in Germany and America but even of the more traditionally minded. The scientific spirit was manifested in the critical study of Jewish history and literature (die Wissenschaft des Judentums), as well as in the movement of Enlightenment (Haskalah) through which secular knowledge and modern ideas were brought to the Jews of eastern Europe. The growing sentiment of Jewish nationalism, despite romantic overtones, was remote from all supernaturalism. The Cabala, which had so long colored Jewish thought, was vehemently rejected by all parties, save for a few scattered mystics and for the largely decadent and obscurantist Hasidim of rural Poland. This period, despite many tragic events, was a time of hope for Israel. The French and American Revolutions ushered in the • • • 235 236 • • • Fallen Angels emancipation of the Jews. Hundreds of thousands fled from the oppression of the Czars to the freedom of western Europe and especially of the United States. The prevailing faith in progress deeply influenced Jewish thinkers. Those who, under the impact of the new anti-Semitism, lost faith in political emancipation turned to socialism or Zionism as the hope of Israel—but hope remained. Under such circumstances, the idea of a world of spiritual evil opposed to the realm of divine goodness was absent from Jewish thought, even in its more conservative expressions. Such beliefs, we have seen, were hardly typical of Judaism—save to some extent in the Cabala. Jews had repeatedly experimented with the idea of wicked or rebel angels, and had rejected the concept as incompatible with pure monotheism. Now in an age of enlightenment , of optimism, and (in some quarters) of secularism, such notions were altogether swept aside. If scholars mentioned them at all, it was only from the historical standpoint, as evidences of borrowing from Persian myth, as superstitions of a long dead past. It was different with Christianity. Dualistic concepts were much more deeply rooted in the daughter faith, and held an important place in Christian teaching throughout all periods of Church history. But Christianity, too, felt the impact of rationalism and of the historical-critical method in the study of religion. How did the Churches react to these new trends, insofar as they challenged the doctrine of rebel angels? The authoritarian groups stuck to their guns. The Catholic Church maintains the doctrine defined by the Fourth Lateran Council that the devil and other demons were created good and, by their own free choice, became evil. For the interpretation of this principle it abides substantially by the views of St. Thomas Aquinas. Certain details may be modified. A modern Catholic admits that Isaiah 14.12 refers originally to the King of Babylon, but adds: "Both the early Fathers and later Catholic commentators agree in understanding it as applying with deeper significance to the fall of the rebel angels." * Another Catholic writer regards it as unfortunate that such great schoolmen as St. Thomas and St. Bonaventura accepted the belief in incubi and succubi.2 But though some of the picturesque trappings of the belief in demons have been tacitly dropped by modern Catholics, the basic notion of rebel angels and of a personal Devil remain unchallenged. A striking evidence of this is the baptismal service. Before the The Century of Liberalism • • • 237 infant is even brought into the church, the priest breathes upon its face and exorcises the evil spirit. And prior to the ablution, the catechumen makes the triple renunciation of Satan, his works and pomps. (The Anglican rite of baptism also requires the candidate to renounce the Devil and all his works.)3 Nor are all these rites a mere survival from the past. In 1890 Pope Leo XIII published a form of exorcism of Satan and the apostate angels, first composed apparently for use in his own devotions.4 Among Protestant teachers, likewise, the more conservative have clung without flinching to the traditional concept of evil angels. A nineteenth century Lutheran, Dr. Sartorius, declared flatly: "He who denies Satan cannot truly confess Christ/'5 More recent handbooks of fundamentalist theology are not quite so blunt; but they maintain stoutly the correctness of the doctrine of Satan.6 A confession of faith adopted in 1942 by a group of "Bible-believing" Baptists in New York State affirms the belief "in...