History’s devilish dealings detailed

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This article was published 24/08/2024 (748 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most of us know or have heard of people who are famous or rich for all the wrong reasons — as if they have made a bargain with evil forces for their own benefit. In Devil’s Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain, Ed Simon uses the story of Faust to trace some of the ways people have traded their principles for personal or societal gain.

Simon is the Pittsburgh-based editor-in-chief of Belt magazine as well as being the executive director of the Belt Media Collaborative and a staff writer for the Millions. He has also written essays and criticism for the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Paris Review Daily, the New Republic and the Washington Post.

Faust, or Dr. Faustus, will be familiar to readers of the writers Christopher Marlowe and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Although the details of the story vary, both authors tell of a man who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for fame, fortune and a long life.

Both Marlowe and Goethe based their stories loosely on the life of Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480-1540), a man who was reputed to have sold his soul to the devil. Using the literary works as a starting point, the author traces the theme of a devil’s contract through many centuries, including the devil’s unsuccessful attempts to lure Jesus into a contract, as told in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and Simon the magician’s attempt to buy miraculous powers from the Apostle Peter in the book of Acts.

From there, the author moves on to other examples of what he sees as Faustian bargains, whether literal or figurative. Simon’s discussion includes a Cilician bishop named St. Theophilus, who reputedly gained his position in the church by making a deal with the devil, and Pope Sylvester II, who was said to have done the same for his power and influence. The author also includes more recent examples, such as Revolutionary American war hero, Brigadier General Jonathan Moulton, who challenged the devil to fill his boots with gold.

Not only individuals but a whole culture can make a Faustian bargain, Simon points out.

Modern North America’s obsession with unlimited material growth has been showing signs of the consequences of the bargain as the world burns and decays. Totalitarianism is another possible outcome. Thomas Mann’s novel Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkühn discusses the fate of a culture that allows itself to be driven insane, as happened in Germany under Adolf Hitler.

The tradition of the Faustian bargain continues today, as Simon explains. From internet users blindly clicking on user agreements to the recklessness that allows the Earth to burn to the development of nuclear weapons, people continue to sign Faustian bargains. As the author notes, the likeliest consequence is our final destruction.

Devil’s Contract is written in an academic style, with a sometimes-challenging vocabulary and content; notes at the end of the book are helpful for readers unfamiliar with the stories Simon recounts. Still, the book contains important messages that people in the modern world need to hear and consider.

Susan Huebert is a Winnipeg writer and dog sitter.