The Church of England finally casts out the Devil - but who on earth is he?

Not welcome: The Devil
Channel 4
The Church of England is getting rid of the devil from christening services.

Priests will no longer ask parents and godparents to reject Satan during baptisms as a new, more inclusive service is introduced.

The move comes as a new poll reveals only one in five of us actually believes in the existence of the Prince of Darkness.

So has Beelzebub had his day — and why the devil did we believe in him in the first place?

The word devil comes from the Middle English devel, which in turn derives from the Ancient Greek diábolos meaning “slanderer”.

In many religions and cultures the devil is considered a supernatural entity, the enemy of God and mankind and the personification of evil.

The devil rules hell, or Hades, where he and his demons punish the damned.

In mainstream Islam and Christianity, God and the devil are said to fight for the souls of humans.

In Christianity, the devil is known as Satan (which comes from the Hebrew ha-Satan, meaning “the opposer”) or Lucifer.

He was an angel who rebelled, along with a third of the angelic host who became demons. Thrown out of heaven, they were condemned to the Lake of Fire.

Satan is also said to be the serpent who tempted Eve to eat forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.




Lucifer: Robert De Niro as 'Louis Cyphre' in Angel Heart
Absolute Film Archive
In Islam, the devil is referred to as Iblis or Shayatan. According to the Koran, God created Iblis from “smokeless fire” but was expelled from God’s grace for not paying homage to Adam, the father mankind, as he believed man was made of earth and therefore inferior.

The Koran says the devil’s mission is to deceive man-kind — until the day of judgment when he will be put into the fires of hell with all those he has deceived.

There is no devil in Judaism or Hinduism. Some religions have a trickster or tempter. For instance, Buddhists believe in Mara, who tempted Buddha with visions of beautiful women — but others believe the devil is merely a concept, symbolising man’s own base instincts and sinfulness.

Over the centuries the devil has had many names, including Beelzebub (Lord of the Flies), the Deuce, the Great Deceiver, Mephistopheles, the Father of Lies, the Prince of Darkness, Old Nick, Old Mr Grim, Old Scratch, Old Splitfoot, the Black Spy, the Gentleman in Black, El Diablo and Bogey.

The devil is traditionally portrayed as a horned monster with a pointed tail, cloven hooves, and carrying a trident of pitchfork.

This vision was first dreamed up by medieval Christian artists who drew on pagan imagery, such as the Celtic “horned god of the underworld” Cernunnos, and half-man, half-goat god Pan.




Art: William Blake’s The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun from 1810
Dante’s 14th century epic poem, The Divine Comedy, represented Satan as a giant, slobbering, three-faced demon with bat wings. His work influenced Renaissance artists and images of Old Nick to this day.

In 1971 a man called Gerald Mayo tried to sue the devil and his servants for making his life hell.

Mr Mayo filed a civil rights action in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania claiming: “Satan has on numerous occasions caused the plaintiff misery and unwarranted threats, against the will of plaintiff, that Satan has placed deliberate obstacles in his path and has caused plaintiff’s downfall”.

The case was lost on procedural grounds.

The court did not deny Satan’s existence, but felt it unlikely the devil was present in western Pennsylvania, while the judge had no jurisdiction over hell.



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