What is Believed
Of ancient, shady ancestry is the Devil. As Egypt's Serpent Apap, he crawled at dark by the Nile while flames shuddered in his thin trail. In Babylonia, even fools dared not prate of him when he was known as "the lady Nina." His was the god-defiance of Prometheus, the malice of Ahriman. Still as Siva he destroys. . . .
Hebrew and Christian monotheism, giving personal entity to God, did likewise to Satan. To Catholics, the Devil still stands shockingly silhouetted against Hell's background. For many Protestants, he has been rationalized or ridiculed out of existence. Last week, however, since belief is the life of god or devil, it appeared that the Devil still lives among Protestants.
It is the Devil of able, quick, dramatic Louis Auguste Gustave Dore which is most famed today. The jeunesse Dore was lightly employed in drawing for Parisian magazines, notably Journal pour Rire. But Dore, an excellent draughtsman, had his serious moments. In the France where he lived (1832-83), Satanism was in the air. There was Baudelaire, whose hero was Milton's heroic Satan, and there was Huysmans who had studied the Black Mass. It was fashionable to wear black clothes and look mysterious. Dore, too, turned to Satan, but objectively. He illustrated Dante's Inferno in 1861, the Bible and Paradise Lost in 1866. Throughout France, and then throughout the world in multitudinous editions, moved Dore's giant and magnificent Satans. Few were the homes a generation ago which were without Dore-illustrated literature. It is in Engraver Dore's vasty terms that most people who still believe in a personal Satan, now visualize him (see cut).
Several months ago Professor of Religious Education George Herbert Betts (Northwestern University) wondered just how many people did believe in a real Devil. Not Catholics, because they must believe, but how about the ramified Protestants? Did most Protestant ministers believe or deny the Devil's existence? Professor Betts sent out a questionnaire, covering several other elements of belief while he was about it. Last week, he published the answers.* At anonymous random he asked 56 questions of 500 ministers, 200 theological students. Some of the questions: DO YOU BELIEVE that God exists? [Only on this question did all agree.] That the devil exists as an actual being? That hell exists as an actual place or location? , That Jesus was born of a virgin without a human father? That Jesus lived a life wholly blameless and without sin or wrongdoing? That after Jesus was dead and buried he actually rose from the dead, having the tomb empty? That there will be one final day of judgment for all who have lived upon earth? Answering ministers and theological students were given a choice of belief, dis belief, uncertainty. Of the ministers, 60% believed in the Devil but only 53% gave him a Hell in which to live. The students' score, also seemingly illogical, was 11% in belief of a real Hell but only 9% in belief of a real Devil. From the mass of contradictory credences could be sifted an essential credo, believed by 75% or more of the combined ministers and students. This credo would read: "I believe in the personal, omnipotent God, the Father, who controls the universe, and operates on human lives through the agency of the Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus like myself was tempted, that he met his temptations and difficulties with only human resources, and that he lived on earth without sin. I believe that forgiveness of sin is essential to a right relationship with God and that life continues after death." Within the denominations, the Lutherans had greatest unity, agreed on 44 out of the 56 answers. Next most united were the Episcopalians who agreed on 25 answers. The least united were the Methodists, of whom Questioner Betts himself is one. Methodists agreed on only 11 of the 56 questions.
*THE BELIEFS OF 700 MINISTERS--Abingdon Press.