Editing Devil (section)

=== Theology ===
In [[Christian theology]] the Devil is the [[personification]] of [[evil]], traditionally held to have [[War in Heaven|rebelled]] against [[God in Christianity|God]] in an attempt to become equal to God himself.{{efn|"By desiring to be equal to God in his arrogance, Lucifer abolishes the difference between God and the angels created by him and thus calls the entire system of order into question (if he were instead to replace God, the system itself would only be preserved with reversed positions)".{{sfn|Geisenhanslüke|Mein|Overthun|2015|p=217}}}} He is said to be a [[fallen angel]], who was expelled from [[Heaven in Christianity|Heaven]] at the beginning of time, before God created the material world, and is in constant opposition to God.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McCurry |first1=Jeffrey |title=Why the Devil Fell: A Lesson in Spiritual Theology From Aquinas's 'Summa Theologiae' |journal=New Blackfriars |date=2006 |volume=87 |issue=1010 |pages=380–395 |doi=10.1111/j.0028-4289.2006.00155.x |jstor=43251053 |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{sfn|Goetz|2016|p=221}}

Many scholars explain the Devil's fall from God's grace in [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonic fashion]]. According to [[Origen]], God created rational creatures first then the material world. The rational creatures are divided into angels and humans, both endowed with free will,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ramelli |first1=Ilaria L. E. |title=Origen, Greek Philosophy, and the Birth of the Trinitarian Meaning of 'Hypostasis' |journal=The Harvard Theological Review |date=2012 |volume=105 |issue=3 |pages=302–350 |doi=10.1017/S0017816012000120 |jstor=23327679 |s2cid=170203381 }}</ref> and the material world is a result of their evil choices.{{sfn|Koskenniemi|Fröhlich|2013|p=182}}{{sfn|Tzamalikos|2007|p=78}} Therefore, the Devil is considered most remote from the presence of God, and those who adhere to the Devil's will follow the Devil's removal from God's presence.{{sfn|Russell|1987|pp=130–133}} Similar, [[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]] considers evil as a deficiency having no real ontological existence. Thus the Devil is conceptualized as the entity most remote from God.{{sfn|Russell|1986|p=36}} [[Dante Alighieri]]'s ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'' follows a similar portrayal of the [[Dante's Satan|Devil]] by placing him at the bottom of hell where he becomes the center of the material and sinful world to which all sinfulness is drawn.{{sfn|Russell|1986|pp=94–95}}

From the beginning of the [[early modern period]] (around the 1400s), Christians started to imagine the Devil as an increasingly powerful entity, actively leading people into falsehood. For [[Martin Luther]] the Devil was not a deficit of good, but a real, personal and powerful entity, with a presumptuous will against God, his word and his creation.{{sfn|Kolb|Dingel|Batka|2014|p=249}}{{sfn|Oberman|2006|p=104}} Luther lists several hosts of ''greater'' and ''lesser'' devils. Greater devils would incite to greater sins, like unbelief and [[heresy]], while lesser devils to minor sins like [[greed]] and [[fornication]]. Among these devils also appears [[Asmodeus]] known from the [[Book of Tobit]].{{efn|"The reformer interprets the book of Tobit as a drama in which Asmodeus is up to mischief as a house devil."{{sfn|Brüggemann|2010|p=165}}}} These anthropomorphic devils are used as [[stylistic device]]s for his audience, although Luther regards them as different manifestations of one spirit (i.e. the Devil).{{efn|"Thus Luther's use of individual specific devils is explained by the need to present his thoughts in a manner that is reasonable and understandable for the masses of his contemporaries."{{sfn|Brüggemann|2010|p=166}}}}

Others rejected that the Devil has any independent reality on his own. [[David Joris]] was the first of the [[Anabaptists]] to suggest the Devil was only an allegory ({{c.|1540}}); this view found a small but persistent following in the Netherlands.<ref name="Waite1995">{{cite journal |last1=Waite |first1=Gary K. |title='Man is a Devil to Himself': David Joris and the Rise of a Sceptical Tradition towards the Devil in the Early Modern Netherlands, 1540–1600 |journal=Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis |date=1995 |volume=75 |issue=1 |pages=1–30 |doi=10.1163/002820395X00010 |id={{ProQuest|1301893880}} |jstor=24009006 }}</ref> The Devil as a [[fallen angel]] symbolized [[Fall of man|Adam's fall from God's grace]] and Satan represented a power within man.<ref name="Waite1995" /> [[Rudolf Bultmann]] taught that Christians need to reject belief in a literal devil as part of formulating an authentic faith in today's world.<ref>Edwards, Linda. A Brief Guide to Beliefs: Ideas, Theologies, Mysteries, and Movements. Vereinigtes Königreich, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. p. 57</ref>