Seven Heads, Ten Horns: The History of the Devil

Project [Antichrist] 2025

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 02:26:12 +0000

Some rich people can't stop talking about the antichrist. But who cares about the antichrist anyway and where did this mythical character come from? Travis and Klaus look at Philip C Almond's Antichrist: A New Biography as well the horror-comedy El Día de la Bestia (Day of the Beast) dir. Álex de Iglesia (1995) to figure out more about the sudden relevance of this JV Devil character.

Halloween Special '24: Of Books and Basements

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:40:35 +0000

"The only true mystery is that our very lives are governed by dead people." Kazanian, Inferno

Greetings from the Beyond. We are back for Halloween, having watched the following in preparation:

-Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)

-The Evil (1978)

-The Beyond (1981)

-City of the Living Dead (1980)

-Rosemary's Baby (1968)

-Inferno (1980)

The Guardian on the Pelicot trial

It's Been A Minute Crossover Episode

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 17:58:55 +0000

Back from the dead to share that we were interviewed on NPR's It's Been A Minute about the devil in cinema.

We are also gearing up for a Halloween episode and are assigning the following films as homework (you can find most of these online one way or another...)

-Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)

-The Evil (1978)

-The Beyond (1981)

-City of the Living Dead (1980)

-Rosemary's Baby (1968)

-Inferno (1980)

S 4.8 Hildegard of Bingen with Dr. Beverly Mayne Kienzle

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 23:40:13 +0000

This week we interview Dr. Beverly Mayne Kienzle about the visionary preacher and medieval abbess, Hildegard of Bingen. Join us to learn more about the tone-deaf devil from the 12th century as we explore the sermons, art, and visions of Hildegard.

S 4.7 Adieu, Adrian: Mann's Doktor Faustus, pt. 2

Sat, 25 Nov 2023 00:08:44 +0000

What is the secularized, capitalistic, art-world equivalent to being torn limb-from-limb by the devil? Find out in our concluding episode on Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus.

-English translation of Mann’s Doktor Faustus

-Danny Riley, “Interpreting Joy: A Guide to Interpreting Beethoven’s Ninth”

S 4.6 Catholic Horror with Matthew J. Cressler

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 02:50:43 +0000

In observance of the spooky season we're posting our conversation with historian Matthew J. Cressler on the relationship between Catholicism and horror cinema. We explore the sub-genre of Catholic Horror through our analysis of two recent films centering on the Italian exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth (1925-2016): William Friedkin’s (!) documentary The Devil and Father Amorth (2017) and Julius Avery’s horror/dramedy/superhero film The Pope’s Exorcist (2023). The conversation was enlightening and just a delight. Please be on the lookout for all of Matthew’s great work on Catholicism and horror:

“The Netflix Series That Should Make Religious People Uncomfortable” The Atlantic, 10/25/21 (on Midnight Mass)

“Exorcists, Abusers, and When Catholic History is Horror” The Revealer, 05/10/22

“You Can’t Have a Catholic Imagination without Horror” U.S. Catholic, 10/28/22

And the man’s making comics about this at Bad Catholics / Good Trouble !

S 4.5 ‘Doktor Faustus, I presume?’ Thomas Mann pt. 1

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 22:22:28 +0000

This episode: we can’t leave well enough alone — another literary elaboration of the Faust legend by a member of the Mann family, Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus (1947.) We discuss: why learning is actually interesting to young people, the problems with studying theology and the humanities, why the devil owns music, whether committing yourself to creative excellence always means a deal with the devil, and what you’re not allowed to say about hell.

English translation of Mann’s Doktor Faustus

The “Jeremy Brett” version of Love’s Labor’s Lost.

S 4.4 Klaus Mann's Mephisto

Sat, 02 Sep 2023 18:28:16 +0000

Three Klauses walk into a bar…

This episode centers on literary wunderkind/prodigal son Klaus Mann’s attack on Nazi Germany (and an ex-lover, and possibly his dad, the canonical novelist Thomas Mann), in the form of the 1936 novel Mephisto. We discuss the film adaptation, what it means to compare demons to the Nazis, the book’s relationship to Goethe’s Faust, and the politics of race in the novel/film.

-Klaus Mann, Mephisto: Ein Roman einer Karriere

-Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark

-Farayi Mungazi and Olivia Marks-Woldman “Black people were Hitler’s victims too – that must not be forgotten”

-“Nazi Persecution of Black People in Germany,” Holocaust Encyclopedia (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

-Colm Tóibín: “I Could Sleep With All Of Them” (On Mann family dynamics in London Review of Books)

S 4.3 Beyond Black

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 23:30:07 +0000

Hilary Mantel's 2005 novel Beyond Black is the topic of discussion for this episode, continuing our series on devil-themed novels. This one's about psychics and their demons in neo-liberal Britain on the eve of Brexit.

-An interview Mantel did on this novel for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

-The Guardian's obituary for Mantel from September 2022.

-Etymology of "Old Nick"

S 4.2 The Devil Rides Out!

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 23:02:58 +0000

Summer is for trashy beach novels and Dennis Wheatley's 1934 The Devil Rides Out definitely qualifies. We discuss problematic genre fiction, fake rituals, the rhetorical trap of being asked "do you believe in evil?" and racial demonology of the late British empire.

Some useful scholarship: Timothy Jones, "The Black Mass as Play: Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out" M/C Journal, 17(4).

S 4.1 This Present Snarkiness

Sun, 11 Jun 2023 17:08:08 +0000

The boys are back to discuss Frank E. Peretti's 1986 Christian supernatural thriller This Present Darkness.

S 3 Faust Cycle 7: A Faustian Age?

Sat, 22 Apr 2023 02:48:13 +0000

Back to discuss the historical Faust, "Faustian science," Sylvia Federici, Sycorax and Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Martin Heidegger's anti-Semitism, The Devil's Miner, and the future of the podcast.

S 3 Faust Cycle 6: Goethe's Faust Pt. II--The Revenge

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 03:24:29 +0000

Klaus and Travis go the distance to close out Goethe's Faust cycle.

One video playlist for the Peter Stein 2001 production of Goethe's Faust II.

S 3 Film Desk: "First Reformed"

Sun, 15 Jan 2023 03:14:41 +0000

In this first episode of 2023 we discuss the 2017 film "First Reformed," written and directed by Paul Schrader, starring Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried. A Protestant minister experiences personal and planetary crisis, making sense of his rage and despair with apocalyptic scripture and radical environmentalism.

As is always the case when we do a film episode, there are spoilers. So go check out the film first if you want the best listening experience.

S 3 Dante's Inferno pt. 2 with Akash Kumar

Fri, 23 Dec 2022 03:23:04 +0000

This episode is the second installment in our series of conversations on Dante's Inferno with Dr. Akash Kumar.

S 3 Dante's Inferno pt. 1 with Akash Kumar

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 16:15:40 +0000

This week we are blessed to be joined by Dr. Akash Kumar for a lively discussion of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century Divine Comedy, and, of course, the Inferno in particular, with all its demons, mythological monsters, personal enemies of Dante, and other tragic figures.

Digital Dante

Akash Kumar, "Teddy Roosevelt, Dante, and the Man in the Arena"

Interactive (hilarious) map of Dante's hell

S 3 Faust Cycle 6: Goethe pt. 3

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 01:10:47 +0000

This episode we finish up Faust 1!

Faust 1 (German text)

Faust 1 (English translation)

Faust 1 (video of performance dir. by Peter Stein, 2000 with English subtitles)

S 3 Faust Cycle 5: Goethe pt. 2

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 02:42:02 +0000

Scenes discussed from Faust 1: Studierzimmer (study) - Hexenküche (witches' kitchen.)

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Faust 1 (German text)

Faust 1 (English translation)

Faust 1 on the stage (Peter Stein, 2000) (no subtitles but better video quality)

Faust 1 (same version, with English subtitles)

S 3 Faust Cycle 4: Goethe pt. 1

Sun, 13 Nov 2022 18:51:22 +0000

Part 4 of our Faust series brings us to Goethe (1749-1832) and the way he reinvented the legend for his own time, or, in as he has Faust say, “take what you have inherited from your forefathers and make it your own.” In this episode, Klaus introduces the work, the author, and the first few scenes.

Faust 1 (German text)

Faust 1 (English translation)

Faust 1 on the stage (Peter Stein, 2000) (no subtitles but better video quality)

Faust 1 (same version, with English subtitles)

S 3 Halloween! City of the Dead

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 01:28:00 +0000

Celebrating Halloween this year with the seasonally atmospheric 1960 film City of the Dead (released as Horror Hotel in the USA) starring Christopher Lee and Venetia Stevenson, directed by John Llewellyn Moxey.

S 3 Faust Cycle 3 with Katherine Walker

Sat, 22 Oct 2022 13:05:07 +0000

Amazing special guest Dr. Katherine Walker takes us through Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (ca. 1592) in part 3 of our Faust-cycle-series. Check out her book Instinct, Knowledge and Science on the Early Modern Stage out soon!

Note: we were being attacked by aliens and ghosts during the recording of this episode and this impacted the audio quality but we carried on heroically nevertheless.

Along the way we discuss the lush 1968 Richard Burton / Elizabeth Taylor film version of Dr. Faustus.

Reach out to us on Twitter @heads_ten & Dr. Walker @KatieNWalker

S 3 Film Desk: The Satanic Rites of Dracula

Sun, 16 Oct 2022 01:42:43 +0000

Getting warmed up for Halloween with the 1973 Hammer Studios film The Satanic Rites of Dracula (dir. Alan Gibson), starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

S 3 Faust Cycle 2

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 03:02:44 +0000

Faust is back, ready to party, and hopefully get things squared away with the hosts of hell.

S 3 Faust Cycle 1

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 02:26:19 +0000

This is the first episode of a mini-series-within-a-season devoted to the legend of Faust, a guy who was too clever for his own good and got mixed up with the wrong people--the kind who make you sign a contract in blood. The text discussed here is the anonymously composed 1587 Historia Von D. Johann Fausten.

S 3 Film Desk: “I’M A FAN OF MAN!” - The Devil’s Advocate

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 00:39:41 +0000

This episode we close out the Summer Cinema of Sin series with The Devil’s Advocate (1997), starring Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves, and Charlize Theron, directed by Taylor Hackford.

S 3 Lit Desk: Heretic of Ulysses, Buck Mulligan

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 00:28:19 +0000

To celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, 7H10H goes into the diabolical, blasphemous, and heretical elements of one of the funniest frenemies in English lit: stately, plump Buck Mulligan, the carousing, poetical medical student based on the historical figure of Oliver St. John Gogarty, Joyce's one-time roommate and rival.

RTÉ’s amazing podcast version of Ulysses from the 1982 production recorded by Marcus Mac Donald, directed by William Styles, and performed by the RTÉ Players. (RTÉ is the public broadcasting company of Ireland.)

The companion “Reading Ulysses” podcast hosted by Gerry O'Flaherty and Fritz Senn from 2004.

Gifford Annotations, Corrected. From the James Joyce Online Notes

Patrick Hastings, Ulysses Guide

S 3 Film Desk: Prince of Darkness

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 02:58:47 +0000

The Cinematic Summer of Sin continues with John Carpenter’s 1987 Prince of Darkness. Compelling devil cinema but also–-is this at once the best and the worst film about graduate school ever made?

Stephen Jay Gould “Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

Interview with John Carpenter on Assault on Precinct 13

S 3 Film Desk: Cops and Demons

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 20:06:15 +0000

This week we discuss two films End of Days (1999) and Deliver Us From Evil (2014) both of which blend the police action flick with the exorcism film. What difference does it make when Satan himself is the criminal mastermind? Along the way we discuss the uses of the idea of "evil" in US politics today in the wake of the mass shootings of May 2022.

One book mentioned:

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment

S 3 Baker Street Beat: Sherlock Holmes & The Devil's Foot

Fri, 20 May 2022 01:10:01 +0000

Sherlock Holmes, the Devil, and Old Time Radio, all under one podcast roof.

Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot” in the Strand Magazine

Arup J. Chatterjee, “Sherlock Holmes and the Spectre of India:” The Adventures of the Devil’s Foot Root”

S 3 film desk: Midwinter of the Spirit

Wed, 18 May 2022 11:35:22 +0000

Kicking off our summer cinema series with 2015’s Midwinter of the Spirit, a supernatural British mystery centering on exorcists in the Church of Mystery and their battles against a “Satanist” plot.

Watch some it free here.

Matthew J. Cressler: “Exorcists, Abusers, and When Catholic History is Horror.”

S 3 e 4: Pseudo-Dionysius

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 22:17:38 +0000

This episode we deal with our first incognito secret-agent pseudonymous theologian, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the way he blends Christianity with Neoplatonism, and how this impacts his demonology.

Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works

(Free online version.)

Marilena Vlad, “Dionysius the Areopagite on Angels: Self-Constitution vs. Constituting Gifts” in Neoplatonic Demons and Angels, ed. Luc Brisson

Kevin Corrigan and L. Michael Harrington, “Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite” at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Christoph Helmig and Carlos Steel, “Proclus,” at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Colleen Hubbard’s new novel, Housebreaking, on sale now

S 3 ep 3: Boethius and the Consolation of Demonology

Sun, 10 Apr 2022 00:58:29 +0000

This episode, Boethius uses Neoplatonic philosophy to prepare himself for his impending execution and to help Klaus and Travis understand why Batman is so miserable.

Free online version of the Consolation of Philosophy

P.G. Walsh’s translation and introduction

James Marebon, “Boethius,” at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

S 3 Lit. Desk: Paradise Lost, House of Pain Edition

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 03:12:00 +0000

Bonus episode musings on Milton's Paradise Lost Book 2, creeping back to the first text we ever worked on for the pod, rethinking everything.

Paradise Lost Book 2

S 3 ep 2: Neoplatonic Demonology & Texas Brisket

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 18:47:26 +0000

This episode is all about non-Christian, Greek-philosophical perspectives on demons and their role in the universe that were developing around the formative stages of Christian theology. Neoplatonism would go on to influence late-ancient and medieval Christianity and so we start to track its effects in this episode.

Neoplatonic Demons and Angels, ed. Luc Brisson

Plotinus, Enneads

Porphyry, On Abstinence from Animal Food, Bk. 2

“Iamblichus” by Riccardo Chiaradonna & Adrien Lecerf at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

“Plotinus” by Lloyd Gerson at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

“Porphyry” by Eyjólfur Emilsson at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

S 3 Interview: Passing Orders with S. Jonathon O'Donnell

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 18:19:26 +0000

An interview with author S. Jonathon O’Donnell about their new book, Passing Orders, in which we discuss spiritual warfare, the Christian Right, and the complicated roles of demons in the political theology of empire. Don’t miss it.

S. Jonathon O’Donnell, Twitter: @demonologian

Passing Orders: Demonology and Sovereignty in American Spiritual Warfare

**The idea mentioned in the episode that “people live in the contradictions” comes from this interview with Patrick Blanchfield on Know Your Enemy about Freud.**

S 3 Culture Desk: Batman vs Moby-Dick

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 21:54:01 +0000

Moby-Dick's dramatic return to the pod as he battles the Cape[Cod]d Crusader.

Twitter for 1940s Batman vs. White Whale images: @klaus_yoder

Battle Ave's music.

Video for "My Year with the Wizard"

S 3 ep 1: John Chrysostom, Secret Star of Twin Peaks

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 21:09:26 +0000

Back in the saddle for the official start of season 3.

Sources:

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis & Against the Jews (The Translation and Introduction by Paul W. Harkins whose name we neglected to mention.)

The Penance of Chrysostom by Giulio Campagnola

Ben Dunning, Chrysostom’s Serpent: Animality, Gender, and Creation

James H. Charlesworth, The Good And Evil Serpent: How a Universal Symbol Became Christianized

Pauline Allen and Wendy Mayer, John Chrysostom

S 3 Culture Desk: Station Eleven-th Heaven

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 22:50:15 +0000

Watching Station Eleven through goggles tinted as red as a cartoon devil.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaAG-SwEa7k

S 2 Bonus: Moby Dick! (pt. 2)

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 19:25:26 +0000

Finishing up our coverage of Ahab's centipede-legged soul and mortal combat against the white weasel, ahem, whale (Chs. 133 & 134). With this we bid season 2 adieu and look forward to sharing season 3 with you real soon.

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The novel in html: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/2701-h/2701-h.htm#link2HCH0119

The novel as a cool 1902 edition on pdf: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Moby_Dick/d4VNAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

S 2 Bonus: Moby-Dick?

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 02:56:19 +0000

Massively unanticipated bonus pod on personified evil in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick inspired by a long drive across Pennsylvania.

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Moby-Dick as a cool podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/moby-dick-or-the-whale/id384525495?i=1000085154762

As html: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/2701-h/2701-h.htm#link2HCH0041

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Some secondary sources:

Jonathon A Cook, Inscrutable Malice: Theodicy, Eschatology, and the Biblical Sources of “Moby-Dick.” Cornell University Press, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv177tfgd.

Leslie E. Sheldon, "Messianic power and satanic decay: Milton in Moby-Dick": muse.jhu.edu/article/495703.

S2 Epi 14: Behemoth, Keeper of Antichrist’s Family Jewels

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 22:11:40 +0000

This week's pod gets a little rowdy as Klaus and Travis discuss Gregory the Great, his demonology, and most especially his voluminous, and often hilarious, commentary on the Book of Job.

With this episode we're wrapping up season 2. We'll be back soon getting medieval on season 3 and in the interim some stand-alone episodes may appear in the feed. Thanks for your support!

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Our main primary source, Gregory's Moralia in Job:

Secondary Sources:

George E. Demacopoulos, Gregory the Great: Ascetic, Pastor, and First Man of Rome

Charlotte Kingston, “Taking the Devil at his Word: The Devil and Language in the Dialogues of Gregory the Great”

Seven Heads, Ten Horns Trailer

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 18:39:29 +0000

the trailer

S 2 Bonus Xmas Epi: Black Pete, Skeletor Santa

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 01:56:00 +0000

This episode 7H,10H is honored to welcome Louis Römer, ethnographer extraordinaire of the Caribbean and the Netherlands, to discuss Santa's demonic entourage in the Netherlands and Germany, namely Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) and Krampus.

We discuss the way these Santa-demons and their re-invented traditions matter for racial politics in Europe, the Caribbean, and Upstate New York. And why, in Italy, Santa is Black.

Follow Louis on Twitter: @lromeranth

Sources:

Sacha Hilhorst and Joke Hermes “‘We have given up so much’: Passion and denial in the Dutch Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) controversy”

Yannick Coenders and Sébastien Chauvin, “Race and the Pitfalls of Emotional Democracy: Primary Schools and the Critique of Black Pete in the Netherlands”

Nicole Römer (Louis’s cousin): “Ik Heb Een Naam” (I have a name) (English language piece on responding to racism in the Netherlands and how Zwarte Piet factors in.)

Magdalena Berger, “Warum sich immer mehr junge Männer als Krampusse verkleiden”

Eva Reisinger, “Dumme österreichische Bräuche: Warum ich den Krampus hasse”

S 2 BONUS: Cops and Clergy on TV--Catholicism and the Police Procedural

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 02:20:04 +0000

This episode we discuss a recent article in the religion/media/culture magazine The Revealer by Klaus about police procedural television and its obsession with Catholicism and Catholic priests in particular. What does this have to do with the devil you ask? Nothing! Nothing at all, I tell you...

Wait. Perhaps it has something to do with how these shows represent Black nationalists? Don't be ridiculous.

Klaus's article: "Cops and Clergy on TV"

An episode of @NoChorus' podcast that helped inspired this research

Trevor Strunk's Patreon for Homicide: Life on the Streets content, video games, and so much more.

S 2, Epi 13: The Curse of Ham (Race and Demonology pt 2)

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 02:15:42 +0000

A quick look at one of the weirdest traditions from Genesis, the Curse of Ham, and how it factored into patristic demonology as well as white supremacist Christianity of the 19th century antebellum South.

Thanks to Ernest Mitchell for the Zora Neale Hurston assist.

Sources:

Stephen B. Haynes, Noah’s Curse: The Biblical Justifications of American Slavery : https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0195142799.001.0001/acprof-9780195142792

David M. Goldenberg, Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691123707/the-curse-of-ham

Augustine, City of God Book XVI: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120116.htm

Origen, Homily XVI, Homilies on Genesis and Exodus: Homilies on Genesis and Exodus. Catholic University of America Press, 1982, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt32b3pv.

Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions: http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0050-0150,_Pseudo_Clemens,_Recognitions_[Schaff],_EN.pdf

S 2, Epi 12: Augustine's many, many demons, pt. 2

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 11:35:23 +0000

This week: Return of the Hippo--Augustine's Revenge!

A classic, super-helpful source:

Peter Brown, Augustine: A Biography

S 2, Epi 11: St. Augustine's many, many demons (pt. 1)

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 02:04:17 +0000

This episode we look the hippo in the eye and dive into the treacherous, chilly waters of St. Augustine's demonology.

Please remember to rate, review, and wait for the signs.

Some Augustine Sources:

Tractate in John 8: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701042.htm

City of God Bk XI: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120111.htm

On the Trinity (De Trinitate Bk XIII)

Chronology of Works: https://exploringaugustine.weebly.com/chronological-list.html

Others:

Neil Forsyth, The Old Enemy

Jeffery Burton Russel, Satan: The Early Christian Tradition

Cristina Richie, "THE AUGUSTINIAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE TRANSMISSION OF ORIGINAL SIN AND ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES" Religious Studies and Theology; London Vol. 37, Iss. 1, (2018): 79-91. DOI:10.1558/rsth.31054

History of Halloween (and the Devil) RELOADED

Sun, 31 Oct 2021 17:53:36 +0000

We're re-releasing this history of Halloween we recorded last year to keep up with the trick-or-treat vibes.

Please remember to leave a review--it really helps. Thanks!

A really useful source for this week's material is Nicholas Rogers' Halloween : From Pagan Ritual to Party Night.

S 2 Halloween Special: Devil’s Touch, Satan’s Skin

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 17:04:47 +0000

To celebrate the witching season we devote our annual Halloween-horror-film episode to the 1970 folk horror classic, The Blood on Satan’s Claw, (dir. Piers Haggard).

Watch it here, courtesy of New Castle After Dark, for free.

Other things we mentioned:

Penda’s Fen (1974) (again, watch it for free.)

A great podcast episode from Live at the Death Factory (second half) that covers Penda’ Fenn.

Andrew Michael Hurley, Devils and debauchery: why we love to be scared by folk horror

Season 2 bonus "CHURCH HANDSOME"

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 01:37:17 +0000

This episode we unleash the takes upon some actually recent pop culture, viz. Netflix's Midnight Mass, and discuss its strengths, weaknesses, and broader relevance for representing the aging, decrepit, and vampiric institutions that feed on our collective life force.

Stuff mentioned in the episode:

Noroi: The Curse (dir. Kōji Shiraish 2005) can be watched in its creepy entirety on YouTube here.

The short story about brain electricity at the moment of death is Tobias Wolf's, “Bullet in the Brain”

Season 2, Epi 10: Tool Time with Athanasius of Alexandria

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 13:43:52 +0000

Lightning strikes twice in one week. It's a short solo episode from Klaus about Athanasius of Alexandria, how the devil might live in the air, and how Christian theology conceptualizes both the human body of Jesus and the airy bodies of demons as instruments of the Lord.

Sources:

Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word

Athanasius, Life of Antony

Gay Byron, Symbolic Blackness and Ethnic Difference in Early Christian Literature

Giorgio Agamben, Opus Dei: An Archaeology of Duty

Season 2, Epi 9: A Hook Sticking Through the Devil's Cheek

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 12:31:25 +0000

The episode that celebrates one year of 7H10H! Then we discusses how the Trinity happened, some influential theologians from Cappadocia, the devil as heretic, the devil as a man-eating Leviathan, Jesus as a fishhook, and God as the devil's therapist.

Sources:

Gregory of Nyssa’s Great Catechism: chapters XX-XXVI

Gregory of Nyssa, On the Soul and the Resurrection

Nicholas P. Costas “The Last Temptation of Satan: Divine Deception in Greek Patristic Interpretations of the Passion Narrative”

Jeffrey Fischer & Kyle Kirchhoff, “‘Even the Enemy himself would not dispute that the action was just’: Disguise and Self-Deception in Gregory of Nyssa”

Adam Kotsko, The Prince of this World, Ch. 3

Morenna Ludlow, “Demons, Evil, and Liminality in Cappadocian Theology”

Season 2, Epi 8: The Devil & The Desert Daddies

Sun, 22 Aug 2021 04:19:18 +0000

"We are their bodies," one monk admitted.

This week Klaus and Travis examine the practical knowledge the first generations of Christian monks developed for identifying and combatting their demons and the devil himself.

Sources:

Life of Ant(h)ony by Athanasius

David Brakke, Demons and the Making of the Monk : Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity (Also check ProQuest.)

John Cassian, Institutes, Book X

Andrew Crisplin, “The Sin of Sloth or the Illness of the Demons? The Demon of Acedia in Early Christian Monasticism”

Excerpts of Evagrius’ Praktikos

Shenoute the Great, “Because of You too, O Prince of Evil”

Season 2, Epi 7: Leviathan’s Thighbone: Race and the Devil in Early Christianity

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 13:07:58 +0000

Klaus and Travis think through the ways ancient understandings of race and ethnicity mattered for group formation in early Christianity. They also see how anti-Blackness and anti-Judaism bring this all back to the Devil.

Special thanks to Michael Motia for his input on this episode! Check out his new book on Gregory of Nyssa, Imitations of Infinity.

Follow us @7heads10hornspod on Insta, @heads_ten on Twitter, Email us at 7h10hpod@gmail.com and thanks for all the likes, reviews, subscriptions, recommendations, and ritual sacrifices.

Sources:

Athanasius, Life of Antony

Todd Berzon, “Ethnicity and Early Christianity: New Approaches Religious Kinship and Community”

David Brakke, “Ethiopian Demons: Male Sexuality, the Black-Skinned Other, and the Monastic Self”

David Brakke, The Gnostics

Denise Kimber Buell’s Why This New Race? Ethnic Reasoning in Early Christianity.

Anthea Butler, White Evangelical Racism

Aaron P. Johnson, “The Blackness of Ethiopians: Classical Ethnography and Eusebius's Commentary on the Psalms”

Philip Mayerson, “Anti-Black sentiment in the Vitae Patrum”

Teresa Morgan, “Society, Identity, Ethnicity” in Ethnicity, Race, Religion, ed. Hockey & Horrell

Origen “On Prayer”

Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Season 2, Episode 6: Origen (sic) of Diabology

Sat, 10 Jul 2021 01:37:49 +0000

Epi 6 focuses on one of the most brilliant, misunderstood, and maligned theologians of Church history, Origen of Alexandria, and his provocative ideas about the origin (so many bad puns coming) of the devil and the possibility that everyone, including said devil, will be saved at the end of time.

Email: 7h10hpod@gmail.com

Sources for this week;

Origen online: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/

John Behr, “Introduction,” On First Principles: A Reader’s Edition.

Mark J. Edwards, “The Fate of the Devil in Origen”

Mark J. Edwards, “Origen,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Neil Forsyth, The Old Enemy

Lisa R. Holliday “Will Satan Be Saved? Reconsidering Origen's Theory of Volition in "Peri Archon"”(pp. 1-23)

Jeffery Burton Russel, Satan: The Early Christian Tradition, Ch. 5

Charles M. Stang, “The Flesh and the Fire” Reincarnation and Universal Salvation in the Early Church

Season 2 Bonus: Catherine Keller's Facing Apocalypse

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 01:48:59 +0000

This episode Travis and Klaus discuss the new book by Catherine Keller, Facing Apocalypse, and talk through the way this contemporary theologian interprets the book of Revelation in the midst of Covid 19, climate change, capitalism, and other catastrophes, while resisting the kind of interpretation ("Y2K was foreseen in the Bible!") that conservatives keep using Revelation for. Keller argues that Revelation does not mean The End but instead points to different possible endings of human exploitation of the earth that in turn may give rise to more humane and holier modes of dwelling.

Catherine Keller, Facing Apocalypse: Climate, Democracy, and Other Last Chances

Book of Revelation (NRSV)

Season 2 Bonus: The Devil's Trill with Stefano

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 15:33:13 +0000

This episode represents our first guest contribution to the pod. Stefano walks us through the use of the devil's interval in Baroque classical music and from there ventures into diabolic form and content in blues, jazz, Satanist-adjacent classic rock, not to mention Snoop Dogg.

Connect with Stefano on Instagram @stefrozental10 and the pod itself @heads_ten on Twitter. Email us at 7h10hpod@gmail.com and thanks for all the likes, reviews, subscriptions, recommendations, and ritual sacrifices.

Season 2, Epi 5: Tertotally!

Mon, 24 May 2021 17:02:42 +0000

This week K&T discuss that 2nd-3rd-century church father who never made it as a saint, Tertullian, and his extremely paranoid diabology.

**Warning,** extreme Northeastern USA / SE. Pennsylvanian pronunciation of the word “water” (=wodr) when Klaus starts talking about baptism. Sensitive listeners should be advised.

Write us: 7h10hpod@gmail.com

Sources for this week:

Tertullian’s works

Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire (Selections from the Fathers of the Church, Volume 2) Book Editor(s): Robert D. Sider

Christine Trevett, Montanism: Gender, Authority,, and the New Prophecy: https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/church-history/montanism-gender-authority-and-new-prophecy?format=PB&isbn=9780521528702

“The Montanists” https://www.tertullian.org/montanism.htm

Dale Tuggy, “History of Trinitarian Doctrines” https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trinity/trinity-history.html#Tertul

Daniel H. Weiss “Christians as Levites: Rethinking Early Christian Attitudes toward War and Bloodshed via Origen, Tertullian, and Augustine”

Peter Harrison, “I Believe Because it is Absurd”: The Enlightenment Invention of Tertullian's Credo

Sophie Rabau,” Cecco interpolator ? ou du Diable au Démiurge. Autorité et réécriture chez Marcel Schwob”

Duncan Heaster, “Satan In The Thought Of Irenaeus And Tertullian”

Jeffrey Burton Russel, Satan: The Early Christian Tradition

Season 2, Episode 4: Perpetua & Felicity vs. The Devil

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 02:55:18 +0000

Klaus and Travis discuss the role of the devil in the early 3rd-century martyrdom/passion narrative of Perpetua and Felicity.

Sources:

The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, trans/ed. Thomas J. Heffernan, Oxford University Press

Online version: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/perpetua.asp

L. Stephanie Cobb, "Suicide by Gladiator? The Acts of Perpetua and Felicitas in its North African Context" Church History' 88:3 (September 2019), 597-628.

Katherine E. Milco,“Mulieres viriliter vincentes: Masculine and Feminine Imagery in Augustine’s Sermons on Sts. Perpetua and Felicity ,” VIGILIAE CHRISTIANAE 69 (2015) 276-295

DAVID E. WILHITE “Perpetua of History in Recent Questions” Journal of Early Christian Studies 25:2, 307–319

Season 2 Bonus: Lil Nas X, Satan Shoes, and Montero

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 12:24:15 +0000

"I saw Lil Nas X's Air Max 97s dropping like lightning."

Clearly we had no choice on this Devil podcast but to put out our thoughts and feelings about the recent Lil Nas X scandal/marketing extravaganza/moral panic.

Sources:

Lil Nas X, "Montero" video

Heather White, "Lil Nas X's 'Satan Shoes' trolled some Christians. But 'Montero' is about more than that."

Andrew R. Chow, "Historians Decode the Religious Symbolism and Queer Iconography of Lil Nas X's 'Montero' Video"

Bryan Pietsch, "These Shoes Contain a Drop of Human Blood. Nike Does Not Approve."

Season 2, Episode 3: The Secret Pod of Yaldabaoth

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 22:40:21 +0000

This week Travis and Klaus discuss Gnosticism and try to make sense of the confusing religious landscape of the 2nd century CE. In the course of their conversation, they explore yet another re-imagining of the book of Genesis, the role of demons in the creation of the world & humanity, and consider how Gnostic demonology helps us think about the problem of evil in Christianity.

Sources:

The Gnostic Bible (ed. Barnstone & Meyer)

-The Secret Book of John

-The Reality of the Rulers

David Brakke, The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity

Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities

Karen King, What is Gnosticism?

Adam Kotsko, The Prince of this World

Season 2, Episode 2: Irenaeus

Sun, 14 Mar 2021 21:11:57 +0000

This week we return to the scene of the crime from our first episode—the Garden of Eden—to make sense of why Christian theologians got so obsessed with Adam and Eve and why this matters for understanding the Devil. Our main source is Irenaeus, a 2nd century theologian who wrote a very long book about why everyone else was wrong, Against Heresies.

Our intro music is by Yung Koolade

Our transition music is "Vater Lee" by Black Ant from here: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Black_Ant/Free_Beats_Sel_3/Fater_Lee

license link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

A translation of Against Heresies: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103.htm

Season 2, Episode 1: Justin Martyr

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 02:06:59 +0000

Back in action with Season 2, Klaus and Travis discuss the mysterious and often acerbic Justin Martyr, the 2nd century philosopher and Christian apologist, whose understanding of devils and demons fits in with a larger project of differentiating Christians from Romans and Jews. What could go wrong?

Sources discussed:

Justin Martyr's writings: https://archive.org/details/writingsofjustin00justuoft

Annette Yoshiko Reed, "The Trickery of Fallen Angels and the Demonic Mimesis of the Divine" https://muse.jhu.edu/article/169408/summary

Jennifer Knust, "Enslaved to Demons: Sex, Violence, and the Apologies of Justin Martyr": https://brill.com/view/book/9789047411260/Bej.9789004154476.i-582_015.xml

Episode 16: Jesus Goes to Hell

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 17:34:57 +0000

Travis takes us to Hell for the first time since we discussed Milton's Paradise Lost in episode 5. He discusses the Gospel of Nicodemus B, another apocryphal gospel, in which Jesus leads a prison break out of Hell and we get a bizarre dialogue between Satan and Hades, the personification of Hell.

Remember to rate, review, & subscribe and we'll be back before too long to begin our second season.

Chapter 15: Cannibal City

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 00:48:57 +0000

Statues gone wild! Sinister, nameless old men! The Devil's favor shown toward a city of cannibals! This episode focuses an example of New Testament apocrypha, AKA, scripture that didn't make the final draft of the Bible, called The Acts of Andrew and Matthias in the City of the Cannibals. You can read a translation of that text here: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0820.htm

Episode 14: Revelation Recap--The Millennium, as told by the Millennials

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 17:53:47 +0000

This week Klaus and Travis discuss the experience of trying to make sense of the Book of Revelation over the past 2 episodes, its links to modern apocalyptic Christian Fundamentalism, and Revelation- reverberations in the January 6 MAGA coup.

Episode 13: Revelation Pt. 2

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 12:59:42 +0000

This week Travis guides us to safety through the second half of the Book of Revelation. We meet various monsters and learn the diabolical secret of the "mark of the Beast." Travis delves into the misogynistic language of sexual impurity that appears throughout Revelation and determines its biblical sources and rhetorical purposes. Finally, he poses the important question of why things are so boring at the end when the monsters exit the stage.

Email us at 7h10hpod@gmail.com and follow us on social media @heads_ten [Twitter] and @7heads10hornspod [Instagram.]

For works cited, check out: https://7h10hpod.blogspot.com/2020/11/works-consulted.html

Episode 12: The Seven-Eyed Lamb (Revelation pt. 1)

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 02:26:26 +0000

This is part 1 of 3 projected episodes on the Book of Revelation. This week we skip to the end of the New Testament to see what the end of the world is like and the role the Devil plays in it. We meet the prophet/seer John and hear about his very strange trip to the heavenly throne room. Along the way we encounter all kinds of monsters including a monstrous lamb, scorpion-tailed locusts, and a certain pale rider.

New Twitter handle: @heads_ten

Instragram: @7heads10hornspod

Email: 7h10hpod@gmail.com

Citations: https://7h10hpod.blogspot.com/2020/11/works-consulted.html

Episode 11: The Prince of this World vs. The King of the Jews

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 13:14:30 +0000

This week we look at the gospel that is different from all the rest, especially when it comes to the Devil: The Gospel of John. We discuss the way the Devil appears in this text, its demonization of Jews or "Judaeans," whether or not John was part of a sectarian community, the possible influence of the Dead Sea Scrolls on John, and Pontius Pilate as the personification of Christian ambivalence about political power. And how he might be infested with demons.

Email us with comments and controversies at 7h10hpod@gmail.com

Check out our bibliography: https://7h10hpod.blogspot.com/2020/11/works-consulted.html

Find us on social: @7heads10hornspod on Instagram

and: @klaus_yoder on Twitter

Episode 10: Saint Paul's Demons

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 14:24:43 +0000

This week we slide head-first into the New Testament (AKA "the Christian Bible") and puzzle over its oldest sources, the letters of St. Paul. Travis and Klaus discuss the myriad ways Paul thinks about evil: powers & principalities, sin, death, fallen angels, and Satan himself.

Find us on Twitter: @klaus_yoder & @realtravis_tea

And Instagram!

Check out the sources we use to make the pod: https://7h10hpod.blogspot.com/2020/11/works-consulted.html

Email us feedback at 7h10hpod@gmail.com

Episode 9: Ancient Iran and the Devil

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 03:45:17 +0000

This week 7H10H addresses the big question on everyone's mind: did Jewish and Christian apocalyptic theologians get their best ideas from ancient Iran when it comes to the Devil and cosmic war?

Shout out and thanks to Ernest J. Mitchell and Prods Oktor Skjaervø for help with sources this week.

Talk to us: 7h10hpod@gmail.com

Check out our sources: https://7h10hpod.blogspot.com/2020/11/works-consulted.html

Episode 8: Children of Light and Darkness

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 15:11:59 +0000

On offer this week: a short overview of the demonology of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This week Klaus gets into the history of the community that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls and introduces some of the malevolent entities that dwell in those ancient documents.

Email the pod with questions and comments at 7h10hpod@gmail.com

We're gradually posting the books and articles we use to make the pod. Check out the bibliography here: https://7h10hpod.blogspot.com/2020/11/works-consulted.html

Episode 7: Watch out for the Watchers

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 14:57:32 +0000

What happens when angels patrolling the newly-created world get a little too randy and start behaving recklessly?

This episode marks our transition to a more chronological attempt at narrating the history of the Devil. We start with an important set of stories about the origins of demons that takes root around the interpretation and retelling of a rather cryptic moment in the book of Genesis, chapter 6. Taking the Genesis version as our starting point, we move on to discuss Second Temple era pseudepigrapha (= non-canonical works that present themselves as having been recorded by major characters from the Hebrew Bible.) We pay special attention to the books of Enoch & Jubilees and the demonologies that result from these dramatic new renditions of the Watchers Story.