Chapter 17 Skepticism and the Demonic
äºA Companion to the Devil and Demons, c.1100â1750Search for other papers by Michelle D. Brock in
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Throughout medieval and early modern Europe, both elites and members of the wider public expressed skepticism about demonic presences and activities, especially in relation to cases of witchcraft and possession, and this chapter traces the main themes in this tradition. It suggests that religious concerns, rather than rising interest in medicine or mechanistic philosophy, informed the most influential skeptical arguments, as seen in the writings of Henry More, Joseph Glanvill, and others both in England and on the Continent who collected hundreds of classical and contemporary examples of the occult to combat what they saw as rising âatheism.â It also emphasizes that, while skeptical publications proliferated in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, many individuals from across the social spectrum continued to believe in demonic involvement in daily life. Debates over the demonic, and anxieties over Satanâs earthly machinations, endured well into the modern era.