tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post64207896439883576..comments2024-03-26T11:33:59.219-06:00Comments on Religion in American History: What is it about the devil?Paul Harveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-83494048935514418112008-08-26T09:47:00.000-06:002008-08-26T09:47:00.000-06:00Mike,I like your questions about why we are hesita...Mike,<BR/><BR/>I like your questions about why we are hesitant to understand the devil or the supernatural in the contemporary period. I think of Christine Heyrman's _Southern Cross_ and her descriptions of how people felt the presence of the devil lurking behind their every move or the auditory experience of clacking hooves (obviously, the devil had hooves not mundane human feet) in their homes. How do we speak about these experiences now?<BR/><BR/>I know I get nervous when folks describe their experiences of the devil, and my students are highly skeptical about any description of this phenomena. I use Pamela Klassen's work on home birth, and she describes how some of the Pentecostal women described morning sickness as an attack by the devil. My students could not imagine how these women could believe something so "silly." As someone who has suffered through morning sickness, I could understand it being the devil's work :)<BR/><BR/>Yet the devil is still present in the lives of religious Americans. How do we understand this vision of the supernatural juxtaposed against the exposed and documented lives we lead? How do we account for the devil in people's lives when we don't feel the lurking or hear the clacking? This is wonderful post that allows us to ask such questions. Now, how do we answer them?Kelly J. Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14328894784072518452noreply@blogger.com