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What’s the difference between being possessed by Satan and hallucinating that you’re possessed by Satan? To an 11-year old boy who’s heard all about The Exorcist, nothing at all. Go to Hell and back with Steve Kissing in this autobiographical graphic novel that proves that real life is wilder than fiction.
This book is written for millions of people who have been taught to fear the myths of Satan and Hell, and millions of others who reject the concepts and wish reassurances. When a Lutheran groom and his lovely Harvard-educated bride stood before me, would she eventually go to Hell because she is a Hindu and not a Christian? Is there really a Satan and a Hell, and is our Creator that cruel? It was then that Donald Emmel began his intensive study of the myths of Satan and Hell.
Emmel's research reveals that through misunderstandings and mistranslations we have ended up with a cranky, punishing Creator that is not in the Hebrew canon, nor the Gospels, nor the authentic letters of Paul. Emmel concludes that Jesus and Paul retained the Hebrew canon's concepts of hassatan as an adversary working with God, and sheol and gehenna as places of death.
In explaining our world today, we must not fly in the face of the vast scientific knowledge, which we utilize but which the ancient mythmakers did not. The ancient myths of Satan as a destructive god, and Hell as punishment for sinners, no longer have validity in the world we now embrace and should therefore be eliminated from our theologies.
Satan is not a theological concept, but a literary character. Systematic and pastoral theology struggles with the existence of Satan and at the same time, the devil inspires authors, poets, artists, and musicians–his true nature in art seems to be creative, even though he is usually associated with destruction. If we want to believe William Blake, the true poet is of the devil's party, without knowing it. The various accounts of the devil in literature and art would certainly promote the theory that Satan himself is working on the side of the artist. While the biblical canon leaves us with many open questions about Satan, the literary canon gives more than enough definitions and interpretations of the devil. Satan is a powerful literary figure, the eternal adversary, object and subject of the story. Without any real substance, he exists in the realm of the narrative, being at the same time destroyer and creator. Satan lends a face to what we experience as evil: the absence of relation, the exile of the soul, the loss of identity, the destruction of the other and the self.
