'What we can find here is a serious look through the ages at our choices to not just personify evil, but make it a central even necessary part of the culture. with its up-to-date bibliography, and with its understanding of the moral importance of the devil as ast least a metaphor of real evil as opposed to treating the subject as merely a literary topos, Almond's book is a welcome addition to the subject.' 'With its understanding that the devil is best understood through his history, with its many stimulating and illuminating obiter dicta. 'Almond's contribution to the Devil's bibliography is welcome in particular because he makes it clear just how tenuous the Christian theory of evil is, and how much it potentially undermines the power and goodness of God the commander of all things evil is a dangerous concept for monotheistic religion, complicating the already difficult problem of the existence of evil in a world created by an overwhelmingly good deity.' 'By the time the reader has reached the final page of Philip Almond's presumably unauthorised bigraphy, one is possessed by a curious and wholly unexpected sensation-that of sympathy for the Devil.'

This is an entertaining and informative read.'

Almond has made theology and demonology approachable and his account rips along. Angels, giants, demoniacs, witches, and divines fill its pages, and the breadth of research informing the book is impressively broad. With humor and charm, it proceeds accessibly from the earliest Jewish writings on demons to eighteenth-century attempts to challenge the belief that Satan was active in human affairs. Almond in his vivid biography convincingly demonstrates that the Devil was, and is, a very bad idea.' Following with deep learning a trail of confusion, dogmatism, and persecution, Philip C. Fundamentally, the Devil owes his powers to the problem of reconciling God's goodness with God’s omnipotence. 'This fascinating-and tragic-account of his influence through history will be a real eye-opener to anyone who supposes that the inconvenience of his not existing would limit the damage the Devil could do. Jill Paton Walsh, author of Knowledge of Angels:

The Devil by Philip C. Almond