Seven Heads, Ten Horns: The History of the Devil

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...

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

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&#...

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”

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.”

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. L...

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

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

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 Abs...

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 “peo...

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"

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...

Watching Station Eleven through goggles tinted as red as a cartoon devil. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaAG-SwEa7k

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. ------ 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...

Massively unanticipated bonus pod on personified evil in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick inspired by a long drive across Pennsylvania. ---- 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 ---- Some secondary sources: Jonathon A Cook, Inscrutable Malice:...

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! ------ Our ma...

the trailer

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 Ita...

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 ri...

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....

This week: Return of the Hippo--Augustine's Revenge! A classic, super-helpful source: Peter Brown, Augustine: A Biography

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:...

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.

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 . An...

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 her...