Talk:Theophilus of Adana

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There's something ironic in this legend of a man who would do anything to obtain a certain ecclesiatic office otherwise unavailable to him. For one thing, his name consists of Greek roots that mean "a friend to God." The name, as such, finds its way into the Germanic langages as "Gottlieb," meaning just about the same thing. The interesting thing, here, is that he would betray his namesake by entering into a pact with the Devil, and then obtain deliverance by praying to the Virgin Mary instead of God himself, who presumably interceded between the Devil and the Lord Himself to resolve the matter.

The interplay, however invisible and unobtrusive it may have been, begs the viewer to imagine the machinations of the classical gods in the Aeneid, where deities (for instance, Venus and Jupiter) were inclined to take an active role in mortal destiny.

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Faust Reference

I've brought the Faust reference in line with the Faust entry it links to, &added some relevant information to the variations section.

Kalindoscopy 13:25, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

The Faust tale has undergone numerous revisions, the one where Faust asscends to heaven is Goethe's, which reflects a philosophy where man's desire to ascend (ie. increase his power and knowledge through reason) is rewarded (in the case of Goethe's Faust, with heaven). Goethe wrote in the 19th century, and thus his Faust has little to do with the development of "witchcraft" as the entire furor surrounding witches for over 100 years. I've changed the ending referenced in this article to the "original", which appeared in the text translated from German in 1592 by "P. F. Gent". As it is much more illustrative of the fact that witchcraft had developed into the serious offence that it was considered during the various witch trials between the 13th and 16th century. The P. F. Gent edition, for example, ends with the warning that, the readers of Faust's tale ought, "to be careful of their vocation, and to be at defiance with all devilish workes, as God hath most precisely forbidden, to the end we should not invite the devil as a guest, nor giue him place as that wicked Faustus hath done". Revealing the original role of the tale as an instruction against sorcery (in addition to entertainment).

Ignus 04:31, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

That the entries clash might not be the most important issue: but observing the important change within the intent of the story, as it has developed, certainly is.

Kalindoscopy 20:45, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

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