![]() ![]() ![]() This function already appears in the Jewish Scriptures. For sectarians, the figure of Satan helped to define "them" (evil Jews) against "us" (righteous Jews). Satan served to demonize "the other" - be they Jews of a different persuasion, pagan persecutors or Christian "heretics." Pagels connects the development of the idea of Satan with Jewish sects in the first centuries B.C. Pagels is interested in the "social" implications of Satan, i.e., how he was exploited to symbolize human conflict and stigmatize religious enemies as Jews and Christians struggled over their respective identities. In this example, she traces how the idea of Satan as a cosmic power opposed to God developed in early Judaism and Christianity. $23 ALTHOUGH SHE has written scholarly works, Elaine Pagels, a professor at Princeton, is perhaps best known as a gifted popularizer. THE ORIGIN OF SATAN By Elaine Pagels Random House. ![]()
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