Lay Preaching and Living Saints

Chapter 3 explores the hesitant and outright critical responses to new forms of sainthood that developed within and beyond England at the close of the twelfth century and into the thirteenth. This chapter situates orthodox hostility toward these “new saints” in relation both to the gift of prophecy, to which many charismatics aspired, and to debates about preaching. At this chapter’s centre is an Anglo-Latin rule for anchorites, the Regula reclusorum (c.1280), which is examined alongside several twelfth- and thirteenth-century figurations of preachers and prophets. Here a discourse directed against allegedly “false” prophets and preachers owes much to the collaboration between the charismatic voices that emerged through lay-anchoritic communities and the forms of sanctity that were quickly gaining ascendancy in the thirteenth century. Contemporary anchorites often summoned the demonic nightmare of orthodox culture by replicating and thereby obviating clerical work, as well as by encouraging lay preaching.

Men Without Names

Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) in India was realized along the lines of Maoist ideology through the Naxalite insurgency in the 1960s. Novelists have attempted to grasp the mood of this decade of liberation through fiction. This article attempts to study two novels which document the formative years of the Naxalite movement in West Bengal. Translated works from Bengali, Mahasweta Devi’s Mother of 1084 (1974) and Bani Basu’s The Enemy Within (1991) foreground the necropolitical policies of the demonic state in eliminating these Naxal names. State and non-state actors obliterate the question of the Naxal’s identity (enmeshed with his mind and body), making it the focal point of the analysis. Drawing abundantly on concepts of homo sacer, necropolitics, McCarthyism, and democide, the analysis demonstrates that the protagonists are typical of what modern biopolitical states do to non-conformist subjects by creating death worlds. This article is an attempt at understanding the nuances of a sociopolitical movement through literature as social responsibility.

Infernal Journeys in Marie-Célie Agnant’s Femmes au temps des carnassiers

The emphasis on testimony in the oeuvre of Haitian-Québécois author Marie-Célie Agnant attests to her recognition of the vital task of bringing truth to light. Indeed, most of Agnant’s works take as their focal point the far-reaching consequences of the Duvalier regime, underscoring in particular the crucial importance of giving voice to the terrifying events that occurred throughout this period. In the richly layered Femmes au temps des carnassiers (2015), a number of Haitian women recount their experience of political violence and testify to the “unspeakable” atrocities that turned Haiti into a “terre gorgée de sang” (Agnant 2015, 21). While this text addresses the complex relationships between history, memory, silence, and voice, it does so by emphatically equating the Duvaliers with the demonic and women’s trauma with a form of hell. Agnant’s deployment of the trope of hell characterizes her female protagonists’ trajectories as a grueling journey into an infernal realm with no guarantee of return. At the same time, however, the narrative strongly suggests that bearing witness, especially through art, can potentially play a significant role in bringing about healing after an unwanted descent into the underworld. Le thème récurrent du témoignage dans l’œuvre de l’écrivaine haïtienne-québécoise Marie-Célie Agnant souligne l’importance qu’elle attache à la nécessité de mettre en lumière la vérité sur des événements historiques troublants. En effet, la plupart des textes d’Agnant ont comme sujet central les conséquences du régime des Duvalier et insiste en particulier sur les événements terrifiants qui ont eu lieu pendant cette période. Dans le roman Femmes au temps des carnassiers (2015), plusieurs générations de femmes haïtiennes victimes de la violence politique racontent les atrocités “indicibles” qui ont transformé Haïti en une “terre gorgée de sang” (Agnant 2015, 21). Bien que ce texte traite des thèmes de prédilection d’Agnant - les rapports complexes entre l’histoire, la mémoire, le silence et la voix - il le fait en créant un parallèle frappant entre l’enfer et les traumatismes subis par les femmes. L’emploi du trope de l’enfer sert ainsi à présenter les Duvalier comme une incarnation du diable et les trajectoires des personnages femmes comme un voyage douloureux sans fin dans un monde infernal. En même temps, cependant, le récit suggère fortement que l’acte de témoigner, surtout à travers l’art, peut potentiellement jouer un rôle significatif dans le processus de la guérison après une descente aux enfers.

“Hero of Our Time” as Archetype of Plot and Images in “Enchanted Wanderer”

The results of a comparative analysis of the novel “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N. S. Leskov and the novel “Hero of Our Time” by M. Yu. Lermontov are presented. Particular attention is paid to the image ofthe prince, parodic in relation to Pechorin and “superfluous people”, as well as the storyline of Ivan Flyagin, echoing the line of Maxim Maksimych. The novelty of the study is due to both the little study of the connections between Leskov the artist and the work of Lermontov, and the insufficient coverage of the issue of the historical existence of Lermontov’s novel. It is shown that stylistic tendencies that are stable for Russian literature of the 19th century differ among writers. Along with this, the question is raised about Leskov’s critical view of the Pechorin type; in his story in the foreground is the hero named Ap. Grigoriev “meek” as opposed to the demonic, “predatory” type. It is noted that in the plot of the novel “A Hero of Our Time” Maxim Makimych, personifying a folk character, takes a subordinate place, this is explained by Lermontov’s sympathy for a demonic personality. The author points out that in “The Enchanted Wanderer”, on the contrary, there is a change in the function of the hero; the prince turns into a marginal character, and the Russian righteous man takes the place of the plot center.

Divine Action and the Demonic

This chapter identifies the realm of the demonic as one area of theological inquiry in the wider topic of divine agency and divine action. It sketches the kinds of actions demons do and the kinds of agents they are. The chapter then looks at the nature of evil as it manifests in persons, and suggests we do not need church doctrine to know about the existence of evil beings. We all intuitively know that evil exists and in some cases this belief is verified by experience. The chapter suggests that demons are complex spiritual agents who oppose all things divine. It responds to four objections to this view and concludes.