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Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief, by Walter Stephens
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On September 20, 1587, Walpurga Hausm�nnin of Dillingen in southern Germany was burned at the stake as a witch. Although she had confessed to committing a long list of maleficia (deeds of harmful magic), including killing forty—one infants and two mothers in labor, her evil career allegedly began with just one heinous act—sex with a demon. Fornication with demons was a major theme of her trial record, which detailed an almost continuous orgy of sexual excess with her diabolical paramour Federlin "in many divers places, . . . even in the street by night."
As Walter Stephens demonstrates in Demon Lovers, it was not Hausm�nnin or other so-called witches who were obsessive about sex with demons—instead, a number of devout Christians, including trained theologians, displayed an uncanny preoccupation with the topic during the centuries of the "witch craze." Why? To find out, Stephens conducts a detailed investigation of the first and most influential treatises on witchcraft (written between 1430 and 1530), including the infamous Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches).
Far from being credulous fools or mindless misogynists, early writers on witchcraft emerge in Stephens's account as rational but reluctant skeptics, trying desperately to resolve contradictions in Christian thought on God, spirits, and sacraments that had bedeviled theologians for centuries. Proof of the physical existence of demons—for instance, through evidence of their intercourse with mortal witches—would provide strong evidence for the reality of the supernatural, the truth of the Bible, and the existence of God. Early modern witchcraft theory reflected a crisis of belief—a crisis that continues to be expressed today in popular debates over angels, Satanic ritual child abuse, and alien abduction.
- Sales Rank: #131112 in Books
- Published on: 2003-08-15
- Released on: 2002-02-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.10" w x 6.00" l, 1.39 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 478 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Throughout the centuries of witch trials in Europe, many Christian thinkers were interested (perhaps a little too interested) in a certain recurring theme of the witches' testimonies: their stories of sex with demons. A Johns Hopkins Italian studies professor, Walter Stephens, looks at this preoccupation in his scholarly but accessible work, Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief. Perusing 15th- and 16th-century writings on witchcraft from various European countries, Stephens argues that theories of demon copulation are more than just misogynistic expressions of ambivalence toward female sexuality: they were vital to Christian thought, a way for theologians to resolve perennial questions about the existence of God and the supernatural.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Rosemary's Baby fans be forewarned: there is little entertainment but much ponderous discussion about theological history in this book on the Christian obsession with sex and demons during the 15th and 16th centuries. To explain this phenomenon, Stephens (Italian, Johns Hopkins; Giants in Those Days: Folklore, Ancient History and Nationalism) turns his attention to the witchcraft treatises written during that time rather than to accounts of the trials themselves. A conscientious historian and writer, he places his work in the context of what has already been done and is careful to point out the dangers of foisting the concerns of one's own era on the goings-on of another. Instead, Stephens attempts to show at great length and with considerable scholarship that this preoccupation had to do with nothing less than theologians' uncertainty about the realness of demons, without whose existence the very precepts of Christianity could be called into question. Recommended for academic libraries. Ellen D. Gilbert, Princeton, NJ
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The common view of witch hunters as wildly otherworldly zealots disintegrates in Stephens' stunning investigation into the motives and methods of these much-misunderstood inquisitors. Through careful scrutiny of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century witch trials, Stephens lays bare a peculiar inversion of judicial dynamics that made the accusers in these proceedings strangely dependent upon the accused for proof of their own imperiled beliefs. Desperately craving empirical evidence to buttress their metaphysical doctrines, the witch hunters struggled to secure tangible proof of human dealings with demons--most sensationally, of women's liaisons with devils. As fascinating as the primitive empiricism of the witch hunters is the tangled psychology of those (mostly women) who genuinely believed they had trafficked with devils--and were defying the Church in so doing. In their voluntary confessions, the reader glimpses a profound social alienation. Stephens finds that the story of the witch doctors has continued relevance today, in a world in which covens of self-proclaimed witches clamor for headlines, frantic parents accuse day-care providers of Satanic child abuse, and reports of alien abduction stir popular fascination. Unsettling and compelling. Bryce Christensen
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Don't Let the Title Fool You
By D
A very good book, well thought out and reasoned, with a wealth of supporting evidence and facts. I can only imagine that the publishers thought that the title would somehow help to sell books, though the type of reader who is looking for books about demonic copulation would do better to browse the Anime section. For anyone who wishes to learn a little bit more about a very dark time in human history and an intriguing theory as to the driving motivations behind it will find this book invaluable.
40 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
Hunting Demons to Boost Faith
By Rob Hardy
Walter Stephens points out, in _Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief_ (University of Chicago Press) that the notoriety of the misogyny of witch hunters of centuries ago is misplaced. He has read extensively in the _Malleus Maleficarum_ and similar documents, and has written a scholarly, large, comprehensive, and well referenced work demonstrating that such books were written to prove that demons were real, and by so doing prove that God, Jesus, and the other articles of faith were inarguably true. Stephens has turned customary reasoning about the _Malleus_ and other writings about witchcraft on its head, but lucidly provides enough evidence to prove his case.
"Witch theorists" wanted some sort of physical demonstration of the existence of demons, but had no recourse but to rely on the testimony of experts. Unfortunately, the experts were witches. Their testimony was inherently unreliable, not only because it was often obtained under torture, but because they were, well, witches. The most material manifestation of demons would be not just that they appeared to witches, nor flew them through the air, but that they actually had physical sex with them. "If demonic copulation had been an obvious and axiomatic fact of life, it would not have received the minute, voluminous exposition and vehement defense that these writers devoted to it." The enquiries about demonic sex were not an ethical effort, but rather a scientific one, although the science was rudimentary and full of error. Pope Innocent VIII had issued a bull which proclaimed the naughtiness of those who "...transgressed with incubus and succubus demons," and so the witch theorists were therefore on firm ground in maintaining that demonic sex was happening, and happening often. There is a wealth of curious detail in this book, about the nature of souls, exorcisms, how witches flew, and why they stole men's penises.
What is not to be found here, despite its amusingly lurid title, is much in the way of titillation. Even the illustrated section wittily called "Filthy Pictures" is composed mostly of weirdly comic artistic visions of demons. Casual curiosity will not do, as this is a massive and serious study by an author with extensive erudition. (It does not keep him from writing amusingly at times, which is welcome in such weird subject matter; he writes, for instance, that confronting demons with such sacramentals as holy water or signs of the cross represents resorting to a sort of "demonic pest control.") Although this book deals with issues of centuries ago, they are still active issues. Stephens doesn't mention all the modern parallels, but shows how adepts of creation "science" make similar attempts to force the physical world to follow a spiritual belief. He also demonstrates that UFO believers and abductees are still flying through the air and being sexually violated just as much as their predecessors were, and with as little physical evidence. He does not mention the millions of people who are convinced that they are watched by angels, or the demons one can see cast out daily on religious television programs, or the witches recently killed in Africa for stealing men's penises. We may no longer look for demons in exactly the same way that churchmen did six centuries ago, but people are still the same, and demons still afflict us.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
The Witch is the Church's Best Friend
By S. Cranow
Perhaps we should ask ourselves , who loves demons more the Church or the witches ? It was during the end of Medieval times that the Church was having a crisis in faith. Many were questioning the reality of the spiritual world. The only way it seemed to sustain belief was to hunt out demons. The proof of demon meant proof of the spiritual world. When the Church could not answer questions then what could prove to be a better scapegoat then the devil himself or his demons.
The churches view of Demons, Witchcraft and women went on a continuum. Going from less extreme to the more extreme as science became more advanced. Interviewing witches and asking them about demons was the church's way of gaining insight into the other world spiritual reality. Demon at first were thought of strictly as being with a body made of another substance, a spiritual substance. There was no way it could interact directly with the earthly plane. They did not have solid bodies. Of course they could possess people but that was rare. They could also possess animals. As time went by the demons, or church members , found other ways the demons could interact with our plane. Some said that it was entering into the human imagination, later on they could materialize bodies by collecting different particles but it was not a real body. toward the end of the burning times They did in fact have a body of their own. Demons came from the name Daimon which was an intermediary between the gods and men. So demons became a more solid reality as time went by.
At first it was believed that demon could not mate with humans but then as time went by the demons could make their own body and steal denial fluids from a man and use it to impregnate a �woman. Finally it came down demons being able to procreate with human beings. This was all gleaned from church father interviews with suspected witches. Might we keep in mind that torutre was used and often times the church fathers themselves added details of their own imagination .
The witches sabbat was another witchcraft demon thing that got blown out of proportion. At first there was not a single mention of it. Later on witches were able to fly in their mind to meeting rot a sabbat. Things always got more elaborate . legend abound about a flying ointment that made witches cirtually able to fly through the air. �At the first it was thought that demons tranported them or used transvection. �Legend than stated that witches themselves flew there. Scientific experimentation revealed that the witches never even left the area when they anointed themselves and the witch hunters stood watch. THe witch hunters of course made some excuse as to why the witches did not fly on that particular occasion and the belief of the sabbat stuck.
The subject of witchcraft itself was not so bad. At worst it was thought that maybe someone of a week mind would engage in such practice. Many church fathers thought that witchcraft did not even work. Later on it would a ssume a much more siinister meaning. �In the beginning men and women would be accused of witchcraft and then things centered on the women. The witch hunts got more anti female.
Witches were also thought to have killed children to obtain their power. This was achieved by turning into �cat or a wolf sneaking into a house and drinking a babies blood. Dead baby fat was supposedly used for an ointment that gave witches more power. They would also use illusions to stamp out male viritilty. If someone could not conceive a witch was to be blamed.�
As we see witches like Jews, alternative Christian sects and witches proved to be excellent scape goats. �If something went wrong you know who to blame. If chidden die mysteriously then you know who's fault it was. All these groups were accused of dancing naked for the devil. All the groups were accused of stealing sacrament and using it's power for negative magic. After all baptism and other sacrament meant that one had god's protection from demons unless a human agent got involved, be it �Jew, witch or heretic.
The Church needs to the devil in order to survive. Without it no onee would be afraid.
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