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The Devil's Insatiable Sex: A Genealogy of Evil Incarnate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Margaret Denike
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Abstract

This paper traces the political economy of the Christian concept of “evil” incarnate and its concomitant operations of sexual abjection and the repudiation of femininity, beginning with the early church's inaugural struggles to impose its monotheistic Law against maternal paganism. With attention to how “evil” has been deployed to sanction and sanctify the persecution of scapegoats, and particularly of heretics and witches, I examine the masculinist struggles for jurisdiction and control over women.

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Type
Research Article
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Hypatia , Volume 18 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Feminist Philosophy and the Problem of Evil , Winter 2003 , pp. 10 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Hypatia, Inc.

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