Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief » (1st Edition)

Walter Stephens is the Charles S. Singleton Professor of Italian Studies at The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Giants in Those Days: Folklore, Ancient History, and Nationalism and coeditor of Discourses of Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Literature.

The reason that sex with demons played such a large role in the confessions of witches during the Middle Ages, contends Stephens (Italian studies, Johns Hopkins U.), is that the concept needed constant reinforcement. He shows how western Christian theologians were worrying about it and other problems of demonic anatomy and physiology for centuries before the first witch trial, and they discussed them exhaustively in the earlier treatises on witchcraft. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Publishers Weekly

Throughout the centuries of witch trials in Europe, many Christian thinkers were interested (perhaps a little too interested) in a certain recurring theme of the witches' testimonies: their stories of sex with demons. A Johns Hopkins Italian studies professor, Walter Stephens, looks at this preoccupation in his scholarly but accessible work, Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief. Perusing 15th- and 16th-century writings on witchcraft from various European countries, Stephens argues that theories of demon copulation are more than just misogynistic expressions of ambivalence toward female sexuality: they were vital to Christian thought, a way for theologians to resolve perennial questions about the existence of God and the supernatural. (Mar. 14) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.