emperors. The figure of Satan should not turn attention
away from these perennial temptations but should emphasize
the superhuman dimension. It is a sharp warning against be-
littling any situation of temptation.
As we saw in Genesis 3, for the believer there is no way
of denying guilt by pointing to a tempter or to the devil.
Aware of the powers of darkness in their mysterious solidari-
ty of perdition, the followers of Christ put their trust in God
and make the wholehearted decision for his reign, a reign of
justice, peace, and love. They put on “all the armor which
God provides to stand firm against the devices of the devil”
(Eph. 6:10). They will not only avoid being tempters in any
way, helpers of the powers of darkness, but will commit
themselves to active and generous membership in a solidarity
of salvation.
This was the mind of the early church in an integrated
discourse on the Christian’s decision for Christ and for battle
against temptations arising from the gnostic and Manichaean
trend toward speculations on angelic and demonic hierar-
chies. We find this sobriety still in Thomas Aquinas. But in
the following centuries great parts of Western Christianity
indulged in fantastic speculations about witches and a slavish
fear of devils as well as ritual exorcisms of them, while lacking
trust in God and making no firm decision for an all-
embracing solidarity.
Today there is a strong reaction, partially in favor of the
original sobriety and partially in indifference to the figure of
Satan, whereby the vast dimensions and blinding powers of
evil are lost to sight. Referring to Ernst Bloch, Leszek Kola-
kowski, in his Gespräche mit dem Teufel (3d ed., Munich,
1977), wonders whether some Christians realize the depth
and cosmic dimensions of evil. Reading Kolakowski one
thinks of the devilish temptation to expect a paradise of peace
in the midst of ever increasing conflict and hatred.
The Christian discourse on the tempter points to the
great temptations arising from bad example and evil
“friends” who initiate the inexperienced into the skills of
crime and corruption. The diabolic temptation seeks directly
the moral corruption of others. It is masterfully described in
the famous novel Les liaisons dangereuses (1782) by Choder-
los de Laclos. Laclos exposes both the superficial optimism
of the Enlightenment and the libertinism of the time preced-
ing the French Revolution. The book aroused much anger
in its time, since it disclosed the truth of fallen humans, who
can go to the limits of malice and cunning in tempting oth-
ers, especially those devoted to virtue. But even to those most
skilled and aggressive tempters there come moments when
humanness somehow shines through, insinuating “that mal-
ice does not constitute a hopeless and irrevocable fact in
human existence” (Knufmann, 1965, p. 202).
This idea was theologized by Origen, who wanted to
leave open the hope that after a long duration of “eternity”
even the devil and his helpers might be converted and saved
by the divine power of apokatastasis. Origen’s thought, prob-
lematic as it may be, opposed tenaciously the dualism of
Manichaeism. Sinners—even the tempter and his helpers—
because they are God’s creatures, keep, somehow, a remnant
of goodness. The theory also intended to emphasize that no
sinner on earth should be considered a hopeless case.
For many contemporary Christians this thought is un-
acceptable in view of the diabolical crimes in our times. Mo-
handas Gandhi, however, thought that the coherent and
thorough spirituality of satya ̄graha (“doing the truth in love”)
could hope to change even persons like Adolf Hitler and Jo-
seph Stalin into satya ̄grahins. For Gandhi, “it is an article of
faith that no man has fallen so low that he cannot be re-
deemed by love” (quoted by Pie-Raymond Reagmey in Non-
violence and the Christian Conscience, London, 1966,
p. 199). This optimism is not a blindness to the horrifying
evil present in humans but a recognition of the power of their
spirit, enkindled and guided by the universal spirit to over-
come such evil at all costs. It may be one of the most diabolic
temptations of Western people not to consider this opportu-
nity and be willing to pay its price in order to overcome the
diabolically vicious circle of nuclear madness.
PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES. Psychoanalysis and psycho-
therapy have made major contributions to a better under-
standing of the mechanisms of various temptations. We note
especially the ego-defense mechanism of repression (uncon-
scious forgetting or prevention of consciousness) of what is
too difficult to face consciously. It could be, for instance, a
call to a more truthful search for life’s deeper meaning. Re-
pression usually works through a security complex which re-
fuses to let reality challenge it.
Karl Menninger notes that temptations and sins arise
from the “huge world of the unmanifest” (1973, p. 221).
The “unmanifest” includes not only whatever the filter of re-
pression is hiding but also unconfessed guilt feelings which
often become confused with real guilt. On this point, Men-
ninger refers to the Bible: “If we say we have no sin, we de-
ceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:8).
The result of the individual and collective temptation
to deny sin and guilt is frequently undefinable anguish, feel-
ings of senselessness, and/or despair about human freedom
and dignity. The deeper source of these temptations is an un-
willingness “to do the truth in love,” thereby hindering truth
from setting us free (cf. Jn. 8:31–41).
Another ego-defense is the tendency to project one’s
own evil inclinations on another, on some villain. In her
work with children, psychotherapist Christine Lutz found
that the healing and growth of moral sense progressed when
the children realized that what they saw in others was, to a
great extent, a projection of their own shortcomings (Kinder
und das Böse: Konfrontation und Geborgenheit, Stuttgart,
1980).
Depth psychology has studied the mechanism of aggres-
sion. On the one hand, there is the danger of trying to repress
it instead of channeling it wisely. On the other hand, there9072 TEMPTATION