I have a new article at the HuffPost Religion about our Obsession and Need for Satan. Here is a little excerpt. To read the rest, please visit here.
In the beginning of every semester I discuss ancient Jewish monotheism with my students in the World Religions and Western Civilization college courses I teach. In the process of exploring the underlying beliefs of the ancient Israelites, I make the point that to the Jews, there was no such concept of a Satan or a devil as we imagine in modernity. According to the ancient Israelites, God was omnipotent and therefore an evil agent that could rival God didn’t exist. Evil therefore was not a metaphysical phenomenon but a moral one. It existed, not as a result of a devil’s ability to make us do things, but because of our own disobedience to God.