Adam Kotsko, The Prince of This World [Book review]

In the style of a Foucauldian genealogy, Kotsko draws upon a diverse array of philosophical, political, theological and literary Christian texts, from the scriptures and classic apologetics, to demonological treatises on witchcraft and Dante’s Inferno, so as to trace the historical significations of a single concept of the devil. What Kotsko’s narrative reveals is that the devil has transformed its meaning over time from originally symbolising the oppressor for the persecuted in the classical period, to ideologically representing the rebel in the eyes of the oppressor from the middle ages until today.