Jeffrey Burton Russell

Studies the historical, anthropological, and religious manifestations of witchcraft, arguing that modern witchcraft in the West is in fact a serious religion that offers valuable insights

Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans

A History of Witchcraft

Brooks Alexander

A revised and updated edition of the classic study on witchcraft examines the historical, anthropological, and religious manifestations of witchcraft, from ancient times to the present day, arguing that modern witchcraft in the West is in fact a serious religion that offers valuable insights. Original.

Sorcerers, Heretics and Pagans

Traces the evolution of the concept of evil from ancient times to the period of the New Testament, calling attention to ideas about the Devil in Eastern and Western cultures

Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity

The Devil

The Christian concept of heaven flourished for almost two millennia, but it has lost much of its power in the last hundred years. Indeed today even theologians tend to avoid the topic. But heaven has always been a central tenet of the Christian faith, writes Jeffrey Burton Russell. If there is no heaven, no resurrection of the dead, the entire Christian story makes no sense.In this stimulating book, Russell sets out to rehabilitate heaven by forcefully attacking a series of ideas that have made belief in heaven, not to mention belief in God, increasingly difficult for modern people. Russell provides elegant and persuasive refutations of arguments ranging from the idea that science has disproved the existence of the supernatural, to the notion that biblical criticism has emptied the scripture of meaning. Along the way, as Russell looks at the ideas of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer, Mark Twain and Alfred Lord Tennyson, Marx and Freud, and a host of others, he sheds light not only on the history of Christian thought, but on the process of secularization in the West. One by one, Russell refutes these anti-religious ideologies, pinpointing the deficiencies of their reasoning.Throughout the book, Russell invites the reader, whatever his or her beliefs, to take the concept of heaven seriously both as a worldview in itself and as one with enormous influence on the world. It is a book that will be welcomed by thinking Christians, who often feel beleaguered by the forces of modernity and sometimes find it hard to defend their own beliefs.

How We Lost Heaven--and How We Can Regain It

Paradise Mislaid

Chronicles the story of the Devil from ancient times to the present, detailing diverse cultures' perceptions of evil and an evil being and examining beliefs toward the Devil today

Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History

The Prince of Darkness

Looks at the concept of the devil from the Reformation to the present, discusses the witch craze, and considers the representation of the devil in literature, art, and music

The Devil in the Modern World

Mephistopheles

Douglas W. Lumsden

This volume, a general history of the church in the Middle Ages, pays close attention to the spiritual, intellectual, and institutional aspects of medieval Christianity. From its beginnings, the church has existed in a state of tension between two forces: the spirit of order and the spirit of prophecy. The spirit of order attempts to reform humanity and human institutions; the spirit of prophecy attempts to transform them into the world of God. This tension created a balance within the church that kept it from forgetting the nature of basic religious experience while continuing to remain sensitive to the needs of society.

Prophecy and Order

A History of Medieval Christianity

The Early Christian Tradition

Satan

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1965.

Dissent and Reform in the Early Middle Ages

Bold in its historical sweep and assured in its scholarly depth, "A History of Heaven" is vintage Russell--a wonderfully imaginative evocation of the celestial theme and a fitting complement to his four fine volumes on the history of the Devil. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

The Singing Silence

A History of Heaven

Teufel, Satan, Luzifer, Mephistopheles - im Lauf der Geschichte hat der Furst der Finsternis, das machtige Symbol fur das Bose, viele Namen und Formen angenommen. In diesem Buch zeichnet Jeffrey Burton Russell die bemerkenswerte Geschichte des Teufels von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart nach. Er schildert uns, wie vergangene Generationen dem Bosen eine Personlichkeit verliehen haben, wie Menschen mit dem immerwahrenden Problem des radikalen Bosen umgegangen sind. "Es gibt wahrscheinlich niemanden auf der Welt, der heute mehr uber die sagenhafte Welt des Teufels weiss, als Jeffrey Burton Russell. (Times Literary Supplement) "Faszinierend. Eine ernstzunehmende Geschichte des Teufels im Spiegel von Soziologie, Volkstum, Kunst und Literatur." (Village Voice) "(Russell) lasst die geheimnisvollen Bilder von Gut und Bose wiedererstehen, wie sie uns einst als Kinder ganz vertraut waren. Von der ersten Seite dieses hervorragend gemachten Buches an verdunkelt sich die Welt. Russell erzahlt uns eine Geschichte nach der anderen und verwendet diese wie eine Treppe, die uns in die archetypischen Erinnerungen und endlosen Schlachten mit Dem Bosen hinunterzieht."(Bloomsbury Review) Jeffrey Burton Russell ist Professor fur Geschichte und Religionswissenschaft an der University of California, Santa Barbara. Das primitive Bose der Gewalt Das naturliche Bose in Krankheit und Naturkatastrophe Das metaphysische Bose - die unvollkommene Welt

das radikal Böse und die Macht des Guten in der Welt

Biographie des Teufels

Alberto Ferreiro

The study of heresy and heterodoxy and of belief in magic, witchcraft and the devil has in the past 25 years made significant advances in our understanding of art and iconography, ideas, mentality and belief, and ordinary life and popular imagination in the patristic and medieval periods. At the forefront of research into this aspect of medieval intellectual history has been Jeffrey B. Russell, whose numerous books and articles have opened important new paths in the field. To mark his retirement 17 established and emerging scholars from Europe and North America - historians of art, the church, religions, and ideas - have contributed papers on the many areas which Russell has influenced. Topics dealt with include elves, the Christians apocrypha, mysticism, sexuality, heresies and heresiologies, apocalyptic tracts, astrology, hell, and other Christian encounters with non-believers. These essays are offered as tribute to the deep impact that Russel has had on medieval studies. Contributors include: Alan Bernstein, Richard Emmerson, Alberto Ferreiro, Neil Forsyth, Abraham Friessen, Karen Jolly, Henry Ansgar Kelly, Richard Kieckhefer, Beverly M. Kienzle, Garry Macy, Bernard McGinn, Edward Peters, Cheryl Rigs, Larry J. Simon, Laura Smoller, Catherine B. Tkacz, and John Tolan.

Essays in Honour of Jefferey B. Russell

The Devil, Heresy and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages

Describes the medieval concept of the devil, discusses witchcraft and devil folklore, and examines the depiction of evil in art and literature of the period

The Devil in the Middle Ages

Lucifer

Traces the origin, development and practice of medieval witchcraft throughout western Europe, and describes the movement's social and religious significance

Witchcraft in the Middle Ages

Traces the history of the view that the earth was flat to the nineteenth-century, thereby supporting the author's theory that this belief was not widespread before Columbus's discovery of America.

Columbus and Modern Historians

Inventing the Flat Earth

All the known theories and incidents of witchcraft in Western Europe from the fifth to the fifteenth century are brilliantly set forth in this engaging and comprehensive history. Building on a foundation of newly discovered primary sources and recent secondary interpretations, Professor Russell first establishes the facts and then explains the phenomenon of witchcraft in terms of its social and religious environment, particularly in relation to medieval heresies. He treats European witchcraft as a product of Christianity, grounded in heresy more than in the magic and sorcery that have existed in other societies. Skillfully blending narration with analysis, he shows how social and religious changes nourished the spread of witchcraft until large portions of medieval Europe were in its grip—"from the most illiterate peasant to the most skilled philosopher or scientist." A significant chapter in the history of ideas and their repression is illuminated by this book. Our growing fascination with the occult gives the author's affirmation that witchcraft arises at times and in areas afflicted with social tensions a special quality of immediacy.

Jeffrey Burton Russell

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