>> Satan and Demons in the Apostolic Fathers:A Minority Report

> Monash University, Melbourne

The Marginalization of Demons and Exorcism in theApostolic Fathers

>The “Apostolic Fathers,” a group of Christian texts written from the latefirst century to the early second century, are recognized as unusual intheir era for their paucity of references to demons, demon possession,exorcism, and illness caused by demons; additionally, rejection of super-natural evil beliefs has also been noted in texts such as the Didache. The fact that a number of texts in the Apostolic Fathers contain explicit refer-ence to supernatural evil, typically a figure identified as Satan, makes it more remarkable that other texts in the same corpus do not contain anysuch references.Although texts without references to supernatural evil are a minorityreport (rather than a growing trend) within early Christian literature, thisdistinctive feature of these other texts is even more apparent when theyare compared with the Christian texts from the mid-second century on-wards, which demonstrate a significant development in the role of super-natural evil within Christian theology; the introduction of exorcism andrepudiation of Satan at baptism, enlargement of Christian demonology, adoption of the concept of Satan as a fallen angel, and the identificationof fallen angels with demons. Lack of consensus on the reason for the absence of demons and exor-cism from these texts prompts this study. It is proposed that certain textsamong the Apostolic Fathers corpus exhibit a significant marginalizationof Satan and demons, and that the cause of this is an etiology of evilwhich is anthropogenic rather than supernatural. Specifically, it is arguedthat the writers of the Didache, 1 Clement, Shepherd of Hermas, Martyr-dom of Polycarp, and 2 Clement, identify humans as the origin and causeof evil, rather than Satan or demons.