Theology of the Devil

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"My servant!" ...I'm not sure I like this representation of The Lord. Von Goethe's depiction of God essentially sends a demon to lead Faust astray; this much parallels a Biblical event, and I have no qualms with it. The Lord's thoughts on Faust's faithfulness are another issue to me. "If now he serves me only gropingly..." How is Faust serving God in any way? From what we've seen, all Faust does is practice sorcery, commune with supernatural spirits (both practices that are condemned in the Bible as "abominations"), ramble in depression, and almost commit suicide. Sure, he apparently believes in God, but does that make him a servant?

To be blunt, I think we all know that it doesn't. Faust isn't serving The Lord "gropingly;" he isn't serving The Lord at all. He's far more concerned with elevating himself to godhood and communicating with any and all otherworldly spirits BUT God. It seems horrible and blasphemous to say that the devil has a more Christian view on this matter than God does, and yet... When Mephistopholes describes everything that makes Faust un-Christian in lines 300-307, he's not wrong. Simply believing in God doesn't make you a servant of God. Even a demon agrees to that. I'm not quite sure what to think about Von Goethe' theology.

P.S. I commented on Faith and Michael's posts.

Comments

  1. Natalie SchulerOctober 23, 2017 at 4:25 PM

    Goethe, like Blake, doesn't believe that God is absolutely good or that Satan is absolutely bad. An example from Blake's poetry is when he questions if the God who made the lamb is the same God who made the tiger (among millions of references). Goethe does the same with God's handling of Mephistopheles. Goethe's depiction of God is that of an indifferent god.

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  2. Sophia ColbertOctober 23, 2017 at 4:31 PM

    I agree. This depiction of God is hardly comforting. He really does not care. On the other hand, Mephistopholes comes across as quite charming. He is, in fact, very polite. This demon literally wants to destroy the world, but he wants to do it with style. Why not have a little fun along the way? He's bad, but he does it so well.

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  3. Trey NorthcuttOctober 23, 2017 at 5:07 PM

    It's a little disquieting, but I think it's fairly obvious from Goethe's writings that his theology is kind of skewed. It's interesting to note that a lot of our literature we've read this year have included authors that have portrayed God or Satan differently than what we've grown up learning. Much like Satan in PL, Mephistopheles comes off as charming not exactly the villain, even if we'd love to assign that to him from the get-go.

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