Satan has seemingly always had a bad rap; from the early church fathers of the dark ages to the thunder-and-lightning televangelists of the US Bible Belt, we’ve certainly heard a lot about how evil this guy is. Henry Ansgar Kelley’s “biography” investigates just how the Prince of Darkness came to exist in medieval religious literature and how his various forms have “evolved” since his inception in the Old Testament.

A fascinating (if a little slow) book by UCLA’s foremost expert on medieval and renaissance culture and philosophy, Kelly traces the earliest mentions of the Dark One back to the Hebrew translation of the word “satan”. Originally meaning “adversary”, a satan (with a small ‘S’) was usually an angel sent to challenge someone’s faith by God – for example, in the Book of Job the good Lord places “a satan” in the form of an angel on the road in front of Job and his donkey which only Job’s faithful ass initially notices. The actual existence of Satan as a being (and with a capital ‘S’) didn’t come about until well into the middle ages according to Kelly. Even the story of the serpent in the Garden of Eden did not exist in it’s current – or similar – form until around four hundred years ago, invented by “scholars” of the Catholic Church to “better emphasise” the role of evil in our lives.

While the actual content is incredibly interesting and well researched, Kelly’s writing style borders on the text-book-like at times, belying his English Professor status at UCLA. The enormous glossary and bibliography also adds to this perception, but in terms of a book purely written for research, the biography is informative, clearly laid out and reference-able.

Anyone who believes in a religious philosophy that includes the “Dark One”, along with any middle-class teenage heavy metal fans will benefit immensely from reading this volume.

Rating: 3 out of 5