Speak of the Devil! The enduring appeal of the demonic in politics and culture

Posted on: 20 October 2022

The conference, entitled ‘Demons: Good and Bad’, is organised by the School of Religion, Theology and Peace Studies and will be hosted in the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute on October 27–28, 2022. The conference is free and open to the public. 

Programme highlights:

• Witchcraft expert Julian Goodare, University of Edinburgh, will discuss witch hunts and the control of magic in early modern European power struggles.
• How the Christian nationalist movements in the US is using the concept of Satan to demonize fights for reproductive and LGBT rights and racial justice will be explored by S. Jonathon O‘Donnell, Queen‘s University Belfast.
• The ambivalent character of Satan in Islamic sources will be analysed by Islamic religious thought expert Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, Trinity.
• Darryl Jones, Trinity, will explain how celebrated English ghost-story writer M.R. James’ day job as a scholar of medieval manuscripts heavily influenced his work. 
• How esoteric and occult practices are represented in Japanese computer games will be discussed by film and video game expert David Stevenson, Trinity.
• Erika Gasser, University of Cincinnati, will share her research on witchcraft and demonic possession in England at the turn of the seventeenth century.
• Cathriona Russell, Trinity, will analyse the many and varied ways that Halloween traditions are being reinterpreted.  

Speaking in advance of the conference, organiser of the event Dr Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, School of Religion, Theology and Peace Studies, Trinity, said: 

“Belief in demons is often considered outdated and marginal. However, in recent years the idea of the demon has acquired a central place in many cultural contexts. From the Netflix show ‘Midnight Mass’ to US Christian nationalist movements, demons are a powerful concept in contemporary politics and popular culture. 

“The mainstream Western concept of the devil or demons is that of an enduring symbol of evil. But are demons inherently bad? Their actual characterisation is often ambivalent. From the Qur’an to Tolkien’s Middle Earth, and from Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) to the Despicable Me/ Minions films, demons and demon-like creatures exceed simple representations of evil, becoming symbolic of concepts such as freedom, wilfulness, rebellion, or moral ambiguity. This ambiguity becomes especially stark when situated against differences in cultural contexts and historical eras.”

More information on the programme and registration available here: https://www.tcd.ie/religion/conference-seminars/demons22/index.php

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